I was in middle school when 9/11 happened and it was basically like a switch got flipped

The same teachers who were bemoaning us loving Pokemon and playing on our Game Boys were making us watch live footage of people dying and telling us that everything was going to be fine

One of the gym teachers had a breakdown and started to cry, half of the kids started to point and laugh at him

Everyone started making up rumors about who did it, #1 runner was aliens

For six hours, I sat in a room clutching my backpack, looking at my comic books and trading cards, waiting for my parents to come pick me up early as the rest of my class slowly filtered out as their parents arrived

My teacher came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder and said "Are you okay? You've been really quiet today and that's not like you."

It became suddenly apparent that nothing good was ever going to happen again

"I'm okay" I managed to get out, "it's just a lot to think about"

I went home a short while later, we got KFC for dinner.