Being a Teenager During September 11th, 2001: Irony, Poetry, and History Making
I had known all along that I didn’t want to be a journalist. I had known it early in high school, after the school newspaper’s Levendis editor assigned me my first Arts & Entertainment article on Pokèmon. I discovered then that I didn’t like talking to people who I didn’t know. But there I was, early in my senior year of high school, 8 th period, alongside my fellow Arts & Entertainment editors Mark and Chris. It was September 11 th , 2001, and earlier that day, during 2 nd period, our entire school had listened over the loudspeakers to the news from New York City, live, including hearing the reaction of the broadcasters as the second tower fell. I had been surprised to see my peers pulling cell phones from their bags to call to see if their parents who worked in the area were okay—kids my age had cell phones? Parents from Cherry Hill, NJ travelled all the way to New York City for work? In the middle of the day, we watched the repeated footage of the towers afla...