Even though this day was seven years ago it still to this day, year round, is the worst day of my life. September 11, 2001 changed my life in the worst way. My life will never be the same knowing that so many of my brothers and sisters died this day. Even worse knowing that my dad could have easily been one of them. Every “9/11” I have flash backs of this day that just ruin the whole day for me.


It was a sunny Thursday morning, just another day of the week. My fifth grade class and I were on a field trip about five miles outside of Arlington. It couldn’t have been a better day so far, the day after my birthday, I had about 200 bucks in my pocket. I was the happiest kid alive at that moment. We had been on the field trip for about three hours when my teacher Mrs. Modlin came running over to all of us in a panic screaming to us that we need to get on the bus. All of us were so confused and didn’t exactly know what to do.


It was a two hour bus ride back to Hamilton Elementary School and we had no clue what was going on. For some reason we had to keep quiet the whole way home. They had the radio on but only the teachers and bus driver could hear it. Keeping around 60 fifth graders quiet isn’t the easiest thing either. So the teachers got clever. We stopped at McDonalds and immediately we didn’t even care what was going on all we cared about was getting food. So the two teachers and the bus driver went in and ordered about 60 cheeseburgers and 60 small fries. I guess getting 60 Cokes would be too complicated so we didn’t get anything to drink, but anyway. That is one thing that will keep a bunch of kids quiet.


So we were an hour into this bus ride when I finished my food. I decided to take a nap because it was still quiet on the bus, but it felt like as soon as I fell asleep we were back to the school. This is when we found out what happened. Our teacher told us that the World Trade Center had been hit by planes and of course all of us were like ‘uhh whats that?’ But then she told us the Pentagon had been hit also. We all knew what that was. I immediately got nervous and started thinking about my dad. He is a firefighter in Arlington and I knew he would be at the Pentagon. I was immediately called to the office. I start walking in to my mom waiting for me. I could tell she was panicking so I didn’t know what to think at this point.


We got home and called every hospital in Arlington County and none of them had him but he wouldn’t answer his phone either. We called all the hospitals and his phone the day after 9/11 and he wouldn’t answer. So I didn’t know if my dad was even alive. Well later that day we were watching the news and they were live at the Pentagon and I saw him in the background loading someone into the back of an ambulance. I was so relieved.


My dad never made it to my birthday party. It really sucked but, I knew he missed it for a good reason. He missed it to help other people. People he didn’t even know. This day is what made me want to help other people for a living. After this day I immediately knew what I wanted to do with my life.