#3 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn 2005

When September 11 occurred I was in third grade. They didn't let us watch. They took us out on the black top outside and told us afterwards. I didn't understand the extremity of the occasion. I knew that I was supposed be sad, and I thought that I should be scared. I tried to act both, but I didn't conjure up any real sympathy. I was too young to understand.  

I figured out how terrible of a thing it really was as the years past. But I still do not think I grasped the reality of it. It was a terrible thing that happened years ago when I could not understand it and therefor I still did not grasp the entire concept. It was not until ninth grade did I truly understand. 

I was in Civics class on the anniversary of that terrible day. Our teacher told us that he watched the towers fall on his television with his students. Not a single sound was made. After it was over, he said that he turned to his class and said,

"We have just watched hundreds of people die."

Then it hit me.  It had taken me six years, but now I finally felt as I should have felt in 2001. My empathy had finally caught up to me. Now reading this book unearths all of that again, plus all my shame for having taken so long to realize how awful it was for everyone. it is almost like karma, coming back to haunt me. I didn't give enough of my sympathy then, and so I must make up for it now.