By J1 reporter Georgie Longo

Mrs. Anne Tompsett was teaching at Mater Day High School in Newport Beach, California. Being all the way across the country made the experience a lot different. For starters, with the time difference it was 7:11 in the morning and school had just begun. 

At 22 years old and fresh out of college, teaching at a private Catholic High school was a very different experience for Tompsett. She described the school as being very sheltered, and being so far away from the tragedy meant that they pretty much went about their school day as normally as they could.

Proceeding with the school day was difficult for many. “I remember having one of those really big TVs in my room on wheels, and us plugging it in, and I didn’t do it with the kids, but after the kids left, like in between classes, just watching it on the news and just being completely shocked,” Tompsett recalls. “It was all I could talk about, being in a complete state of shock and disbelief.”

Post 9/11 came with a lot of change, the biggest one being with stricter airport security. Tompsett also noted the change in “Just safety in general at schools and public places. Just people being more aware of their surroundings.” She also felt a huge surge of patriotism within the country saying, “I feel like the USA in general kind of came together.”

With it being the 25th anniversary of the events of 9/11, many Americans believe it can be very easy to get lost in the details and lose sight of its importance. And for younger generations who were never there to experience it, it can be hard to understand the gravity of it and its impact on our country. To Tompsett,“Just patriotism and how we came together after something like that happened” is important to learn about and to recognize. 

“It was all I could talk about, being in a complete state of shock and disbelief.”

Anne Tompsett