WILLIE ALLEN, JR. / THE SEATTLE TIMES Nathan Wheeler started the morning happy and excited last Sept. 11 — it was supposed to be his day to celebrate.

The story of Nathan Wheeler

A boy's insights
gradually emerge
from a birthday
turned 'doomsday'

Kids with Christmas birthdays, especially, know better, but when you're 12, your birthday is supposed to be all yours. Last year, Nathan Wheeler learned what it was like to share his day with an entire country.

In the space of a few hours, Nathan saw Sept. 11 turn into something he never expected. "Doomsday, it's doomsday!" the kids told him. "You were born on doomsday! You were cursed!"

In the weeks that followed the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., he was like a lot of other kids. A villainous figure had emerged — Osama bin Laden — and Nathan wondered: What if he bombs all the big places? Like Chicago, or the Columbia Tower? Who are they going to bomb next?

This year, Nathan, a seventh-grader at Seattle's McClure Middle School, will turn 13. Maybe some people won't come to his birthday party, he worries, because it's ... that day. That would suck.

Last spring, 350 teenagers from around the world shared their thoughts and feelings about the attacks and their aftermath in an online discussion group, "Everything After: A 9/11 Youth Circle." The two-month project was launched by Global Kids, a New York City-based agency that seeks to inspire urban kids to become active, educated citizens. According to the Urban Reporter, a study by the New York City Board of Education estimated in May that 75,000 public-school students — more than one-fourth of the school population — suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after the terrorist attacks. Most students surveyed had yet to receive any mental-health counseling services.

But he also realizes now that while his birthday has changed, it hasn't really been taken from him. Instead, it's a chance to remember what happened and pray for the people who died that day.

Unhappy birthday

Sept. 11, 2001: It was early in the school year, and as a brand-new student at McClure, all Nathan hoped was that the other kids would be nice and maybe wish him a happy birthday.

If nothing else, he knew there would be presents and a party at his grandparents' house later. That alone gave Nathan, a typical sixth-grader with Nickelodeon tastes and Eminem-blond hair, reason to be excited about his 12th birthday as he left for school that morning.

Then, a friend's father told him what happened. Nathan listened. He had visited New York when he was 9, but this didn't seem real or make sense. He didn't think anyone would really attack the United States. He didn't know anyone could. "And I was kind of mad because it was on my birthday," he says.

In drama class, he remembers, "we just sat there. We talked about what was happening in the world." By the time he got to third period, class discussions were consumed by it. Some parents were even taking their kids out of school.

"We didn't really learn anything that day," he says, at least not in the normal sense.

And that night, his family huddled around the TV, watching the president.

A year for reflection

This year, Nathan and his friend Nick, who has the same birthday, will celebrate in their own way. They foresee a "double-nighter," with consecutive nights of Xbox, GameCube and PlayStation2. There will be friends, family and a Costco-size box of Otter Pops.

But he also knows everyone will be sad about what happened a year ago. It will be all over the news. But that will be OK, because as it turns out, he did learn something that day. "I feel sorry for all those innocent people who died," he says. "We still don't really know why."

Even for adults, it was a tragedy hard to comprehend. But the last year has been a coming of age for this soon-to-be-teenager, who has made peace with having to share a day that will no longer be the same.

"It made me think about life more," he says, "how much I appreciate it."

Marc Ramirez: 206-464-8102 or mramirez@seattletimes.com.