My name is Octavia, and 9-11 I was in my classroom at PS234.
It's about three blocks from the World Trade Center.
We were just a bunch of little kids, and we saw a lot right out the window.
At 9-11-11, the 10th anniversary, we came back to the classroom.
They all wanted to film it, and I just thought they were so stupid.
There was a huge cloud of smoke coming at you, and they just were stopping to take photos.
All I could see was the sun, and I saw sort of like smoke belling out of the sun,
and my first thought was like, oh no, the sun's on fire.
Sitting in this corner, my mom and one other mom burst in mumbling something about a plane.
They didn't make any sense.
They were going like that, and then a little kid, kind of a wild kid of the class, just screams,
and he called his dad by his first name, so he just started screaming, ah, it's walled! Ah, it's walled!
And everyone's just looking up in shock, and then my other friend just says the tower's burning,
and the teacher, who was extremely brave, like I still see her around,
she closed the shades, and Rhett finished the whole entire book, like kept everyone calm.
And we both looked up out the windows, and I just remember seeing this gaping hole right there, right in front of me.
It was like any other normal day.
We were reading a book on the rug, and it was a read aloud, and I just saw a bunch of parents coming.
It was only the second day of school, and I remember I was still so small that my dad had to carry all the school supplies up to the class.
An old man coming in just covered in ash.
Almost sounded like lightning, really loud lightning striking, and people outside in the yard were screaming and panicking.
And we saw the south tower, which was the first tower collapsing.
My dad worked in the World Financial Center, which was right next to the towers.
So I started crying thinking that my dad was dead.
We were running up Granite Street, and all of a sudden, and I was holding my teacher's hand,
and all of a sudden just everybody froze, and everybody turned up and looked up,
and I naturally turned and looked up, and we all saw and heard the second plane come by,
go by the first tower, and crash into the second building.
Twin towers.
Death.
Tourists.
Fire.
Home.
Explosion.
Terrorists.
Burning towers.
Tragic.
I remember seeing people jumping, but at that point, I didn't grasp any of the concepts of suicide or death even,
and I had kind of just used my imagination as a survival tactic, like, oh, they're just landing on skateboards.
I remember one time looking up at the sky, and, like, the clouds were moving really fast,
and it kind of looked like the buildings were falling down.
I mean, I didn't really have, like, a panic attack then, but it just kind of irked me a little bit.
Since I was so young, I didn't have, like, a preconceived notion of what the world was,
but now I know that, like, it's not, like, completely peaceful, like, you know,
there are things do happen like that, like attacks do happen.
I didn't really know why they did it.
I just knew there was an evil guy who destroyed my city.
Terrorist group.
Osama bin Laden.
A group of terrorists.
Fear.
Osama bin Laden.
A threat.
9-11.
Osama bin Laden.
The leader.
A hateful person.
Terrorist.
Criminal.
Terrorist.
Mastermind.
Horrible.
Dead.
Not a threat anymore.
If I had Osama in front of me, I honestly don't have any hate or any, like, built-up anger in me,
but that's honestly because it didn't affect my life, and I didn't lose anyone,
and I don't know anyone that lost anyone.
But I would honestly just ask, why?
Why?
If everything you're for is, like, loving a supreme being that has created human beings,
why would you ever, like, it just doesn't make any sense on any level?
You knew that there were children around, and they were, like, you know,
that there was like a whole, like, there was a whole bunch of people just there
that in innocent lives had to die just because you had this terrorist attack.
No one religion teaches about forgiving people. Why would you do this?
On September 11th, 2001, I was nine years old, and I'm starting my sophomore year.
I'm Xavier High School. It's on 16th Street.
I was in first grade on 9-11, and now I go to the Dalton School. I'm 16.
When 9-11 occurred, I was in first grade, because I was 10 years ago.
I am 15, and I was in kindergarten on 9-11.
I was in first grade and go to a museum school.
I was in first grade on 9-11, and I'm 16.
I was in first grade. I'm 16.
I go to school of the future.
I was five years old on 9-11. I'm now 15 years old.
I was in second grade. I go to Nesclasum now, and I'm 16.
I was in first grade. I'm 15 now.
I was in first grade during 9-11, and I'm 16 now.
I'm 15. For 9-11, I was five years old.
I was in fourth grade, and I go to the University of Chicago.
The facts of life.
You're born, you die, unless you're Osama bin Laden.
So, then all of a sudden, I hear, you know,
Obama killed Osama bin Laden, and I was really excited.
I just wanted to hear all about it, and I just felt so good that justice had been made.
I found it really odd that Americans were out in the street celebrating down here.
I know someone was killed, but he was responsible for the death of almost 3,000 people.
Because I was very happy, because I know he was the one who basically directed those terrorists to attack us.
You know, there's always, like, that risk, like, that someone could be angered, that we killed him,
and then we publicized it so much, like, it was a great thing, like, he died.
That's something that you don't celebrate. You don't celebrate death.
I was sort of appalled by the, someone called it, like, a frat party, basically.
I mean, you walked out on the streets, and there were people who were just wasted
and screaming and climbing things and yelling, and that, I don't think, was the appropriate reaction at all.
The majority of people were really happy when Osama bin Laden was killed.
But I didn't really feel happy or sad, because it's someone's death,
and I don't think anyone's death should be celebrated.
Conflict.
A country.
War.
War.
Guns.
Attacked.
Middle East.
New York.
Pakistan.
Muslim.
My ethnicity.
I know friends.
Mosque.
People.
I know at my school, like, kids always joke around, like, oh, you're a terrorist, but, like, it's a joke.
Like, it's, like, so accepted. It's, like, not even a big deal anymore.
I know that the people that perpetrated these acts were Muslims, but they were extremists,
and they don't represent the mainstream at all of Islam.
My sister growing up, she wasn't alive yet, and I hope she doesn't have labels like that when she grows up.
It's easier just to push the issue away and say, we understand who these people are,
and then we'll just shut them out, and then it won't be an issue anymore,
and it could never happen on our homeland again, instead of trying to look at the issue
and understand why it happened.
People come here to be free, freedom of religion, and all that stuff that the Constitution says
that people think of when they think of America.
And, I mean, if they want to put a mosque there, it's not a mosque, it's a cultural center,
but if they want to put that there, then they should have every right to.
And I think that, you know, saying that they shouldn't is very hypocritical.
They should have built it, but not in an area where all of that happened should be somewhere else in New York City.
It was terrible. I would walk by in trucks saying, like, everyone's, like, people are going, like, they're going to go to hell.
They deserve to burn. I think that's absolutely terrible.
These people want a place downtown to be able to worship.
What is the issue with that? And if you keep putting barriers, how is it ever going to get fixed?
Al Qaeda and the Taliban, it's analogous to, like, the KKK.
I mean, we don't think of it in that way, but it really isn't something that's part of Islam
or it's not something that's not necessarily about Muslims,
but I think that's sort of the problem that no one really understands,
that it isn't the religion that's targeting us.
Us.
Freedom.
Flag.
Stars.
Country.
Liberty.
Proud.
United.
Home country.
Freedom, I guess. Perhaps not. That's what I'd like to associate with it.
I'm not sure that's what I actually do.
The people that live here have, like, so much freedom that don't even realize that.
I mean, there's so many barriers in other countries.
I take it, and I do it, and I work hard.
And those are values that they will always, like, have.
And I definitely feel that in high school.
Like, you see the kids who come from parents that can't even speak English,
but they're, like, out to get the highest position that they could possibly get.
I'm sort of, like, ashamed a bit to be an American,
because we've sort of, like, messed up a lot of things in the world
and, like, created quite a few wars.
We're a culture who listens.
We're a culture that values different people's ideas.
And even if we disagree with them, we're still willing to listen to them.
Judy, is it Christianity?
Difference.
Peace.
Horrible.
Complicated.
Important.
Oppression.
Faith.
Extremism.
You shouldn't generalize what a few people do to an entire religion or group of people,
but I feel like we shouldn't hold any prejudice against someone
for something that somebody else did and that they had no connection to.
If they don't follow, you know, their religion,
why would you call them Muslims?
You should call them something else,
because Islam does not teach about doing that stuff.
Islam does not teach you to fly planes into buildings
and now misinformed people think it is.
I don't hate anyone or I don't judge people based on their religion
or where they come from.
At my school, we've done a unit on religion
and studying the differences between, say, Christianity and the Islamic religion,
and there really aren't that many big differences.
They're actually quite similar.
I'm a Episcopalian, but I don't really know if I believe in God,
you know, have my whole life to decide that.
Despite our religion, despite our race,
despite our beliefs, we can relate to one another somehow.
Elementary school that I went to when I was a little kid.
Home.
Great school.
Great memories.
Phone.
Ice skating.
Olds.
My elementary school.
See.
School.
Home.
All sorts of projects and songs.
Polluting is causing global warming and soon the world will fly.
Cars, factories and wildfires are polluting.
People can stop polluting.
Talk to your parents about polluting.
Remember, you can make the world a better place.
So stop littering and start helping the world.
If we all help, everyone can be happy.
Optimistic.
Positive.
What's to come?
Expectations.
Undecided.
Good.
Me getting older and accepting life.
Hazy.
Change.
I like science a lot.
Maybe I'll be a doctor.
I don't know.
I would be happy like owning grocery stores.
Really, whatever.
I think I want to be a journalist, but I'm not exactly sure.
I have absolutely no idea.
Definitely nothing in the sciences, despite my education at the moment.
Writing, filmmaking would be awesome.
I love working with international diplomacy and trying to help the world, not only in
national or city level, but in a world ever in the United Nations and other international
bodies.
I want to be a chef when I grow up.
Enter into some form of public service.
Definitely join a band, just get on stage, touring, doing all that great stuff.
Like a pastry chef or a cook, just because I sort of have to do science and chemistry.
I like to mix things together and see what it comes up as.
I'm kind of torn between being a writer or a photographer.
I mean, maybe I'll be a photojournalist.
I can do both.
I've been playing the trumpet and I'll probably end up doing something in the arts.
I did want to be an interior designer, but I don't know.
I have to research more.
I love New York City and I might go into the public sector and get back to my community
and one day run for office.
Film really interests me and I think that would be cool.
I hope to be a politician or maybe an actor or something like that.
I guess they are similar.
Thank you.
