The attack of Sept. 11, 2001 on the Twin Towers left a mark on many of the people who saw the event.

On that day 14 years ago, two planes were taken over by terrorists and crashed into the twin towers. Nearly 3000 lives were taken and more continue to pass from the sickening effects of the attack.

There are stories upon stories of people who were lucky not to be in the towers for miraculous reasons and also of those who were misfortunate enough to be stuck in the towers at the wrong time.

Eric Magana, a World History and U.S. History teacher noted that although the terrorist attack was a horrible event, it brought a temporary new level of unity in our country. “I’ve never seen so much patriotism in my lifetime, people all started to rally around the flag.” The attack brought people together and caused some to deal with the tragedy together.

English teacher, Cynthia Pino, described the feelings she had towards the terrorist attack. “We didn’t know if our world was ending at that moment; we really didn’t know.”

The thousands of deaths that day left many mourning or kneeling to pray, and caused many together to deal with the destruction together.

Like Magana, Pino also noticed that the world was brought together by this experience.

“There was this moment of world bonding that we don’t unfortunately see very often.”

Megan Driving Hawk, an art and sculpture teacher, had an eighth grade social studies teacher spent his class period talking to the students about the destruction of the World Trade Center on the day of the suicide bombings. “It just showed us as students how awesome of a person he was all around because he took the time [out of his teaching period]. He knew the right questions to ask us to get us thinking about what was happening.”

Driving Hawk’s reference to a teacher that positively affected her understanding of a catastrophe shows how much potential teachers have to impact their students for the better if they are just willing to set aside some time. The time dedicated by teachers to informing their students about September 11 can help people who cannot remember the event hold that day with respect.

The experiences and opinions regarding that Sept. 11 day vary, however, one thing was and continues to be clear: the nation did not let it bring about our downfall.