We gathered every week in the library. It smelled of old books and teacher Irene’s coffee.
I was so used to this repetitive schedule. Every week we had a day where we went into the library and spent some time learning about reading comprehension and why reading was so important.
I sat down in the cushioned chairs that were made specifically for elementary students and rested my head on the back of the chair, trying to go unnoticed as I had yet to pick my book for the day.
But it was not long before Ms. Irene called us all over by singing the same song as she always sang, “R, E, S, P, E, C, T.”
We always laughed at her because she sang that song to every Unionville Elementary School student and we never understood why.
She started reading a book to us and, of course, I was not paying attention. When a coworker of hers came over and whispered something into her ear, I was super relieved that for a second she was interrupted. But, instead of Ms. Irene going back to her readings, she stood up immediately and briefly explained she would be right back.
When Ms. Irene came back, she had the remote control in her hand and seemed uneasy. She quickly turned on what seemed to be the news and what happened next changed the lives of everyone in that class.
She threw her hand over her mouth and mumbled under her breath, “Oh my God.”
I looked up to see what she was looking at and the scene on the television showed buildings completely enveloped in smoke. There were people running around in sheer fear, debris falling from the sky and fires every where.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in second grade during class with Ms. Irene, the librarian, listening to my teacher read a story, when I first found out the World Trade Center was attacked. I had no idea what was going on, what happened or why it happened, but everyone was crying and running around and no one explained that we had been attacked.
Sept. 11, changed the lives of so many people and it wasn’t until I was older that I understood the severity of what happened.
I also never understood why Teacher Irene always sang that song, but looking back now it makes so much sense.
It’s somewhat eerie that before she was preaching about being respectful to others and then just minutes after, all of America was under attack– it may have felt that way.
