I've noticed a lot of people writing their memories, and I, well, I'm not gonna lie, I'd like to get mine off of my chest.

It was a pretty normal morning. I woke up, had cereal, and went to school. My mom dropped me off a little early and I spent some time talking with friends.

Once we sat down, our teacher, Mrs. Wood, came in. We were taking lunch roll, and halfway through, one of the other teachers came in. "Cassandra." He called.

This immediately got our attention. At that school, all teachers were called by their last names. First names were not used on school grounds. We were taught that it was disrespectful.

But he called her first name. So she excused herself, and went outside. We could all hear them arguing, and him telling her that she "couldn't" and that it was "scarring". Finally, after a few minutes, she came back.

"What I'm about to show you will change your lives. It will change the way you see your world, and your future America. This event has just changed history."

And she turned on the TV in the classroom. We came in just before the second plane hit.

We heard "OH MY GOD, HERE COMES ANOTHER." and saw the second plane hit.

Not fifteen minutes later, we were all watching, entranced, and my mother came into the classroom, and removed me. She signed me out of the school, and immediately headed over to my grandmother's house.

She explained that the World Trade Center had been hit, and that my cousin Mark, was in that second building. We had not heard from him yet.

That was when everything got real. That was when my tears hit. I remember crying for a very long time, and, when my cousin Andrea, Mark's widow, called, I couldn't stop crying.

I had spoken to Mark the day before. I was supposed to see him in a week, for my birthday celebration up there. He told me that he had a big surprise for me.

On September 15th, I asked Andrea what the big surprise was. He was going to take me on a tour of the WTC, and afterwards, we were going to see The Lion King on Broadway.

I will never be able to watch that show, knowing that he should be in the seat next to me.

God bless.