We still remember

Five years ago, everything stopped. And then, everything started. Today, the nation remembers the tragedy that changed life as we know it.

September 11, 2006 —

On the morning of 9/11, many students sat unaware of the severity of the events in New York City while others were glued to a television trying to wrap their minds around the atrocity that had taken place.

Many SVSU students were in high school at the time, their day spent around the nearest television. But such was not the case for many of SVSU's newest freshmen, most who were in junior high during the attacks.

Two such freshmen are Katelyn Hutoon and Brittany Farrell. Both were in seventh grade and found out about 9/11 in similar ways.

"They came over the PA and announced it, but they turned off all the TV's," Hutoon says. "We weren't allowed to know much about it."

Farrell shared much of the same experience, as she was also not allowed to watch TV at her school.

"In my school, there were running TV's all day in the library and they turned them off because they thought we would freak out... so we didn't really know what was going on."

Both believe it was because of their age that the schools did not allow them to watch. Throughout the day, word spread between classmates, but no one truly understood what was going on or the severity of the event.

"We didn't know all the details," Farrell says. "We just knew someone attacked a building and weren't sure why everyone was making such a big deal about it."

It was only when they went home that they finally were able to get any information.

"When I first watched it at school, I didn't have much thought about it," Hutton says. "I got home and started to watch the news and was absolutely devastated."

Freshman Nick Crittenton had a different experience on 9/11. He was a high school freshman and was allowed to watch the news but was confused as to what was going on.

"I didn't understand how serious it was at all," he says. "I didn't even realize it was America at first, I thought it was just another country getting attacked again."

Unlike in Hutoon and Farrell's case, Crittenton experienced an open dialogue with teachers.

"It didn't really hit me until I went into my history teacher's room," he says. "The way he talked about it made me realize how serious it was."

Amidst the calamity of that day, everyone took with them a story to remember. What is truly important is that among all of these different stories comes one glaring similarity: the events of 9/11 cannot, and will not, be forgotten.