Right before I went to class, I saw my "baby" brother walking the halls with birthday balloons. He turned 16, which as we know is old enough to drive. I remember smiling thinking how happy he looked. I was in AP Government with Mr. Hoffman, one of the stellar history teachers at C.D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge. Our class had finished a little early and, being that school had just started, The Hoff was indulging us with some SNL political shorts.
I don't know if they still do, but PWCS televisions used to default to a news station. Going from Will Ferrell to "New York is burning" was certainly emotional whiplash. I remember yelling at the television along with my classmates somehow thinking we could stop that second plane. Class change came and we walked like zombies to our next class. I remember the first (and only) time I saw a fellow student use the F-word with an administrator and not get punished. They were told to put their cell phone away - their father worked in the Pentagon.
As a senior in high school, I was on the cusp of being released into the "real world", which suddenly looked nothing like what I thought it was. We were vulnerable, fragile, and targeted. I knew that people didn't like Americans. I refused to wear sneakers on my exchange to Paris the year before because I was convinced someone would spit at me. But this, this was unthinkable.
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