It was a beautiful fall day in New York City when a 10-year-old girl headed to her 5th grade classroom in Queens, New York.

However this day would change the lives of many, as 19 al-Qaeda terrorists intentionally crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and fourth into a field in Pennsylvania.

“To this day it gives you chills because you watched and listened to all the fear,” Noelle Mulholland, the then 10-year-old girl, said. “It was a difficult time.”

Mulholland, now 20, remembers panicking as she learned that the Twin Towers were collapsing.

“Our principal came on the speaker and said a plane had hit one of the towers,” she said. “I assumed it was a little charter jet.”

About 15-minutes later, the principal came back on the speaker and said a second plane had hit the towers.

Even as a 5th grader, she knew that these incidents were deliberate.

“I panicked,” Mulholland said. “I thought about my parents — my mom worked next to the UN and my stepmom, who was eight-months pregnant, worked cattycorner to the Center.”

Mulholland was not the only student terrified that Tuesday morning.

On the opposite side of the city, Lara Mirgorod, 10, laughed when she first heard the news.

“I thought it was a joke,” she said.

When the what-she-believed-joke turned into reality, Mirgorod could only think about her father.

“My father was supposed to be on the plane to Boston — the one that was headed for the White House — but he missed his flight,” she said.

Although Mirgorod knew her father did not make it on the plane, she still could not get in touch with him because there was no phone service.

As the day continued, the intensity grew.

Students in New York City were having a near impossible time contacting their parents and the fear of losing a parent, if not both, was common among many.

“Classes stopped,” Mulholland said. “We were listening to the radio and kids were being taken out of school.”

Mulholland was one of the last students to be picked up by her family.

“All modes of transportation were shut down,” she said. “My mom had to walk 13 miles from Manhattan to Queens.”

Mirgorod’s parents, however, picked her and a few friends up within three hours of the collapsing of the Twin Towers.

“It was more of a day to help my friends,” she said, adding that three of her friend’s fathers died in the Twin Towers that morning. “I just remember watching the news and seeing men jumping out of buildings.”

Now, 10 years later, Mirgorod, who has a stuttering problem, says she never stutters when talking about Sept. 11 and still gets a disgusted feeling in her stomach when thinking about the events of that day.

“I’m not going to cry everyday but it’s definitely an empty feeling — something’s missing — not necessarily in my life, but in general, in the architecture, downtown,” she said.

Although airport security has increased, Mirgorod still worries about her father who flies frequently for his job.

“I was never afraid of him flying until 9/11 happened,” she said. “Now, I’m always afraid. I hate him flying, especially because he was supposed to be on that plane.”

Today Mulholland is proud of how the city came together on 9/11 and in the months following the tragic day.

“It definitely leaves a hole, it was such a monumental skyline with those towers,” she said. “It represents a real loss for New York.”

Mirgorod agrees. To her, it was a day that affected everyone’s lives, not just New Yorkers.

“When talking about the events of 9/11, you’re always going to hear a story,” Mirgorod said.