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#899 | Monday, March 11th 2002
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I woke up depressed on September 11, 2001. I was depressed because while the Broncos had played and won their season opener the night before, one of our star wide receivers, Eddie McCaffrey, had broken his leg and was done for the season. Yes, this depressed me. This is how I know how carefree I really was on September 10.
I turned on the news to see if there was anything about how his surgery went the night before. I saw the first World Trade tower burning. I watched until my son woke up; just before he did, a plane flew into the second World Trade tower. I remember seeing the plane fly into it. From my vantage point, television, I saw clearly what had happened. The reporter, however, was there, and could not see what had happened. Even as we *watched* the second plane fly into the tower, the reporter was talking of an explosion. He had no idea what was going on. It must have been chaos. You could hear people screaming, you could hear the panic in the reporters voice. He kept saying "hold on, hold on, I don't know what's going on." I kept thinking, someone radio that poor guy and tell him what happened.
My son awoke moments after the second tower was hit, and I was grateful for the excuse to have to put on Brave Mom face. What I wanted to do was crumple and cry. But I turned on the radio, turned off the television, and gave him breakfast and we did legos. I heard the news of the towers crumbling, and the plane crashing into the Pentagon, then the plane crashing in Pennsylvania. I heard it all on the radio, and didn't get to see any images on television until my son went down for his nap. I stayed glued to the television as much as I could when my son wasn't awake, and when he was, I listened to the radio. He was too young to understand the words, but not too young to watch the television even if he didn't understand what he was seeing. So I kept it off.
My husband was in Steamboat Springs for a business retreat, and we hadn't heard from him. I didn't want to get online and tie up the phone line, but I was desperate to see if maybe he had emailed me. I finally called my mom, talked to her and my sister for a while, then got online to check my email. He had emailed me, and said they'd just been watching the television all morning. He was supposed to drive back that evening, but ended up getting home around 2 p.m. I guess they let everyone go early because some of his colleagues that had flown in from California were going to try to rent cars to drive back home.
With him home to distract my son, I watched more television. I watched television until I felt like I would throw something at it. Finally, around 6 p.m. we decided to go out to get something to eat. The roads were pretty much deserted and there were one other family in the restaurant besides us. Everyone was subdued. The televisions were on in the bar so we sat there and watched some more.
We got home and all went to bed by 8 p.m. I kept thinking I had to watch television in case something else happened. I think we fell asleep to CNN that night.
Of course it all started to hit us more and more in the days following. As time goes by, the pain and shock lessens, but this morning, seeing the old news coverage, it brings that pain and shock back all over again. I remember saving everything from the newspapers in the month following 9/11. Perhaps today I'll get it out and look through it. Pay tribute to those that lost their lives six months ago today.
Today I will hug my son a little longer, and tell him I love him more than anything in this world. Today I will go outside and just experience nature. Today I will be thankful to be alive, and remind myself that while sometimes life may seem overwhelming, no matter how "terrible" things are, I am luckier than those who are not around to have any kind of day: terrible, wonderful or in between.
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Christina | 25 | Colorado
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#771 | Monday, February 18th 2002
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I was in my lab at Emory University in Atlanta. A coworker said that something big was going on, and to log onto CNN...but we couldn't. The website was just jammed. So, we took down an old black and white TV we had on top of one of our cabinets and tuned into the Today show. The WTC looked like a giant smokestack above New York. I grew up in northern NJ, and saw the WTC every time we would get on the highway, and I had been in the building many times...and the scene was just unreal. Then the second plane hit, and everyone was just in total shock. Some people had tears in their eyes. I called my mother. We spoke about people that we thought might be in the building at the time, or that work in close proximity. I sat down next to the phone and cried. I hadn't cried in years. Someone who knew I was from the area asked me if I thought the towers would collapse, and I said "oh, never, they are so huge and strong that they can withstand it." Minutes later I was proven wrong. Words can't express how I felt. Hours later, I got in touch with a good friend who works near the Battery and who was witness to it all. I was relieved to talk to him and to know he was okay. I felt guilty for weeks after...any time I was doing anything fun or remotely unimportant. I made a visit to NYC in October, I felt like I needed to see it in person. I was lost in New York without the towers there as a landmark. I still get angry and sad thinking about it to this day. We should never forget what happened. If you need a reminder, look at some photos. Hopefully you'll be mad as hell all over again and realize the depth of evil that was thrust upon us that day.
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Mike | 25 | Georgia
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#752 | Sunday, February 10th 2002
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I sang in the shower that morning. I danced around while getting dressed. I went to work. And then, the world fell apart. I was at the preschool where I work/volunteer when I first heard that something was wrong. One of the parents dropping his child off told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. My first reaction was... well, I didn't really know that anything was wrong. I just thought it was an accident. Then the woman who runs the preschool got a call from her son saying a second plane had crashed and that everyone suspected it was a terrorist attack. I still wasn't too alarmed. In my mind, I was picturing a small, one man plane like the kamikaze pilots used in WWII. Then I heard about the Pentagon being attacked and about the 4th plane crash. I was a little scared, but still had no idea of the magnitude of what had happened. After lunch, when we got all the children down for their naps, we finally turned the TV on. The first image I saw was the footage of the plane crashing into one of the towers. I had to get up and go to the bathroom because I thought I was going to be sick. The rest of the day was spent in absolute shock. After I got off of work, I went home. And cried. It was like being in the middle of a bad movie plot. I was sick to my stomach and my head hurt. I just... I just didn't know what to think. I'd never really prayed before. I prayed all day.
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Caroline | 25 | Tennessee
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#733 | Wednesday, February 6th 2002
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I was at work in Lansing, Michigan. The boyfriend of my coworker called her and said that someone had crashed a plane into the World Trade Center. I said some smart remark about being a stupid pilot. I had no idea that a GIGANTIC plane hit the building. I had thought it to be some Cesna or something. After that, I went to CNN to read about it. I seemed to be the only one able to get ANY news as the entire internet seems to come to a stop. We had no TV. I gathered news and forwarded it onto my coworkers. Everything. Every rumor. Every truth. It went out.
That day was amazing. Amazing at how people can think that killing this many people would serve any point to anyone. And, amazing at how one nation can unite. And even more amazing, that the world was in complete solidarity with that single country.
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Jeff | 25 | Michigan
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#647 | Tuesday, January 22nd 2002
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I run my newspaper's website. I was walking in the door when the first plane hit. I didn't think very much of it, truth be told. Not much was known at first. So I put what little information I had on the website and went in to watch the unfolding events on TV in the conference room.
I watched as the second plane hit. I watched them burn, watched them fall. I put up as much news as I could, when I could. You can blame the media for oversaturation, if you want, but i think most of the nation wanted, needed to watch this on TV.
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No | 25 | Illinois
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