#180 | Monday, October 1st 2001
I attend was walking to my 9:30am class at Eastern Connecticut State University. As I neared the building it was held in, I saw a mob of students congesting the small lobby and spilling out the doors. I made my way inside wondering why so many were packed together, and then I looked up at the TV mounted high in the corner that was switched on for the first time that I can remember.


I was seeing live CNN coverage of reporters quickly flipping through pages of information, something about the World Trade Center. I read across the bottom of the screen that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. I wandered on through the crowd and up the stairs to class, perplexed at what I'd briefly picked up.


An hour and fifteen minutes later I made my way back through the lobby that was now thick with solemness. Dozens and dozens of heads turned upwards at the TV with emotionless faces. The second tower had been destroyed. I didn't know what to think or how to feel. I spent the rest of the day in a haze, trying to soak up as much information as I could and contacting family to make sure noone was hurt. I was lucky. My prayers go to those less fortunate.

Justin | 20 | Connecticut

#133 | Saturday, September 22nd 2001
I had an 8 o'clock class that morning - a freshman class, and I'm a junior, a class I should have taken long ago, a class I don't want to be taking now. I sat in class tired, in a bad mood, and staring the clock as the minutes ticked by - it seemed like an eternity. Once class was finally over - at 9:15 - I walked to the computer lab to check my email, while considering the rest of my day - a 12:30 class, a 2 o'clock, and a 3:30 pm, none of which I was in the mood to go to. Sitting in the lab, my friend from home sent me an instant message saying simply, "OH MY GOD." "What?" I responded, not in the mood for some drama I would have to pretend to care about. "You mean you don't know?" "Don't know what?" I responded, thinking I had missed the newest juicy gossip about one of our friends. "The Trade Center was bombed, and I think the National Mall is on fire; they're also saying the White House is a target." My heart sank.. The National Mall? The White House? I live four blocks from the White House, how could my city be on fire? There were a lot of rumors going around then; maybe none of them as bad as the truth. I went home to find my roommate glued to the tv, "have you heard?!" she exclaimed, "your dad called, but our phones are being weird, cell phones are out..do you think they'll cancel classes?" We really had no idea how big everything really was or what was going to happen. We sat there watching tv and watching our generation lose its innocence as the buildings I had visited only months before began to collapse...
Erin | 20 | District of Columbia

#128 | Friday, September 21st 2001
I cursed the ringing phone through the groggy haze hangover. I scheduled my Tuesday/Thursday classes in the afternoon for a reason. Now the phone rings and I'm pissed.
"What" I curtly hiss into the speaker phone on the stand next to my bed.
"Um...Jack, hi it's Travis' mom"
"He's asleep" I cut her off. I can't believe I woke up for something as so totally unrelated to me. She better have something important to say.
"Well, I'm not sure if you're watching TV, but you might want to turn it on, a plane collided with the World Trade Center..."-Great, my roommate's mother calls to wake me up, hungover, on four hours sleep, at 8:30 am-just to tell me about some airline crash that won't effect me at all today. Grrrr. "...actually, you guys might not want to watch it."
"Well, thanks for telling me." I'll tell Travis you called." Oh yeah I will. He's gonna owe me something for this.
Shit..I'm awake now. I'm more aware of my headache then ever. I move lazy bones out of my bed and into the kitchen for some water and Advil. Since I'm up, might as well check out this disaster.
I change to CNN just in time to see the second plane crash into the second tower. My brain scrambles for some reasonable explanation. It does not compute. It still does not compute. That day, I never got dressed. I never made it to class. I sat in my living room and watched the world change.

Jack | 20 | Louisiana

#127 | Friday, September 21st 2001
I was sitting in sportswriting class when they collapsed. We were writing stories about the season finale for the New Haven Ravens (minor-league baseball). So one of my classmates leaves, then pokes her head back in and says the towers collapsed. I had seen people crowding around the TVs in the building on my way in to class (around 9:30), but I was late and missed that class too many times already.

I sort of staggered around the rest of the day, skipping my third class of four that day at 2:00. As soon as I got back from my second class, I immediately tried to get a hold of my best friend, who lives in NYC. She would have been there and died if she hadn't overslept that morning.

Jason | 20 | Connecticut

#120 | Friday, September 21st 2001
I remember waking up for no apparent reason at 5:45am (pacific time...8:45am eastern) and having this weird feeling settle over me. Soon after I fell asleep and then around 8:15 was awakened again, but this time by the phone.
My friend, Brendi, said in a panicked voice, "Are you watching this on t.v.???". Of course she knows I don't have a television, so my obvious reply was "no".
As she began to explain what had happened over the past few hours, I sat in shock wondering how someone could be so cruel to such an amazing country like ours.
It is unbelievable how many people have come together and shown the world how powerful we all are, no matter the city or state.

GOD BLESS AMERICA...home of people that won't let such tragic acts affect them, they only grow from them. :O)

Emily | 20 | California

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