A high school sophomore, I walked from biology to health class and saw the TV turned on and the towers smoking. One student told me we got bombed, which is what I first thought.

The rest of the school day was spent watching TV coverage of the attacks, except for math class. My math teacher refused to turn on the TV, even after the principal’s office interrupted her by announcing what happened over the speaker. “You’re going to hear plenty about it later,” she told the class before stubbornly going along with the day’s math lesson (which I don’t remember).