Feelings on Bush change as war on terror drags on

To Josh, Aaron, Jeremy, Jaeger, Julian and Allison, I wish you were here. Hopefully, the progress report on the war will bring you out of Iraq and back home where you belong.

I was sitting in my high school chemistry class in 10th grade, talking excitedly with my friends about this new movie coming out called "Zoolander." A fellow classmate ran in, saying that someone had blown up the Pentagon. We quickly jumped for the television, and at 8:59 a.m. CST on Sept. 11, 2001, the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center was broadcast to a worldwide audience. We remained speechless, confused for a moment as to whether we were watching a movie or reality.

After about five minutes, we decided to continue with the day's lesson, for which our teacher, Dodie Wells, planned a demonstration involving the mixture of pure magnesium and water. For the non-chemistry majors out there, when pure magnesium is mixed with water, it explodes. The bang was audible from the outside, as some classes decided to exit for the day and try to contact loved ones in New York and Washington.

But the phones didn't work. I couldn't reach my cousins, Lindsay and Jamey, until a week later. No one at my school, Isidore Newman School, knew what to do. We were all gathered in the auditorium, where Dean of Students Dale Smith confirmed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He said President Bush was on his way to Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, and that senior Will Ensenat, the president's godson, had been escorted off school grounds by the U.S. Secret Service.

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