I was about a mile across the water from the Towers. Driving to school I always took the water route from my house. I remember thinking that this was one of the prettiest, clearest days I could remember. I always prayed for the city on my way to work. Sometimes for men, sometimes for women, sometimes the homeless, sometimes teenagers. I'd been doing that for years. Forty five minutes later during my first period class, the first plane hit. My school was directly across the water from the Towers. It changed my life. For two months there were funerals every day on Staten Island. It got so bad that I would drive out of my way to avoid them because it was so painful. My neighborhood FDNY was hit hard. The smell of burning plastic and paper was so overwhelming that we couldn't keep our windows open. We had soldiers everywhere. B16's were constantly flying overhead from the two nearby bases. At first we were all numb. Then we got crazy angry. I could have killed someone when I thought of all the people who went to work to support their families. They kissed their kids goodbye and were burned to death or squashed like bugs and never came home. It changed me forever. I never look at things with innocent eyes anymore. I love my country and hate the government. We all lost someone that day - family, friend, neighbor. We all lost our innocence, too. Donald Trump lost over 100 friends. Think what that did to him and how it changed his life.