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#231 | Friday, November 2nd, 2001
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I had just awakened, got dressed for work, came downstairs, and turned on the local news, like I always do, to help me to wake up. I now wish I had not turned on the news...how was I to know what was about to happen would break my, as well as the rest of the world's, heart...There was suddenly a breaking news story: a plane had apparently ran into one of the World Trade Center towers. I remember turning to my twin sister and commenting how sad it was...when the second plane hit the the other tower.
THE SECOND PLANE HIT THE OTHER TOWER.
My twin sister looked at me, and I looked at her. I said, "Dammit, we're under attack," and she said, "What do you mean, we're under attack?" "There is no way two planes could run into the same building," I said, and she mentioned in a hopeful voice that the second pilot could have been so involved with what was going on with the first one...and I told her, "NO. That second plane deliberately angled in and crashed into the tower."
I had to go to work, and did not get to watch much of the news the rest of the day. My twin would NOT watch the news, it made her too upset and scared.
When I got home from work, we decided to go to church, and my twin was delivered of a spirit of fear. (She still doesn't like to watch much of the news, but doesn't get as upset if I want to see what is going on.) She went to bed around 10:00 that evening, and I turned on the news, and watched it for three straight hours. I cried like I have never cried before, and wrote a couple of poems. (I have written several more since then.)
Since September 11, I have had a feeling of incredible sadness. I grieve for the innocents lost, for their families and loved ones, and for our country...where we used to be relatively safe. Not any more...but I also have experienced pride like never before. Seeing all of the red, white and blue, hearing "God Bless America," our national anthem and other patriotic songs, the heroism of our police force, firefighters, paramedics and ems, medical teams, search and rescue teams, dog teams and their handlers, and ordinary men, women and children doing what they can fills my heart near to bursting.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
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Karla | 42 | Texas
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#232 | Friday, November 2nd, 2001
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It was during ISTEP week, and at the end of one of the tests, our teacher turned the TV on to the news to see the world trade center. He was telling everyone to be quiet, and that this was live history, but no one acred, and everyone was talking. After that, I went to Art where the teachergot every quiet and said. "I don't know if you heard, but a plane crashed into the World trade center, and another one just did. They were acts of terrorism, we might go to war."
I remember my legs shaking, and everyoen started talking in hushed tones.
All day, all the TV's were on in every classroom, even in the cafeteria.
I was scared, really scared, for the first time in my life.
That day, I went home and cried for the first time about something besides an injury.
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Annalise | 13 | Indiana
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#233 | Saturday, November 3rd, 2001
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It was the first cold morning in Arizona in a long time. I thought about getting my jacket but was running late as usual and walked briskly out the door with my usual attire, backpack, and no food. All I was worrying about was if I was going to get a chicken sandwich or pizza for lunch. That was about 7:00am, mountain standard. As soon as I got on the bus, the radio DJ announced the tragidy. At first I thought someone just bombed a building like in the Oklamhoma Bombings and thought "Whoop...I can't do anything so who cares?" During the ride to school I just listened to see what it really was and some girl on the bus broke down in tears. He dad had flown to New York on business just the day before. His destination? The Twin Towers. I went strait to the cafeteria to watch the television. Luckly, CNN was on so I could catch up on the event. They showed the first plane hit over and over and over. My eyes just went wide and my mind blank. How could they show it like that as if it were similar to fireworks on 4th of July? Did they expect me to ooh and awe? All through out the school day all we did was watch CNN and disscuss everything. There was so much anger in the words people were saying. A lot of people were protesting and saying who they think did it and how we should kill them. 9.11.01 was the day I came to realize how much we take for granted and how much HATE is in our society. Especially in us kids. It's sad that is something as monumental as this for people to realize where and who they are and how much more they have than so many others.
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Brittanie | 16 | Arizona
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#234 | Saturday, November 3rd, 2001
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I was in Spanish class at KSU, normal day. At the beginning of class, someone came in and said, "some planes have hit the WTC and the Pentagon" Even though she did say the Pentagon, which is where my aunt works, I didn't think much of it, thinking only cesnas or some small plane. We went on with class until 12. Then we got out and it was all over campus... people were talking on their cell phones crying, people were saying that classes were cancelled. That had me worried. Classes hadn't been cancelled at KSU since May 4, 1970, or so I had heard. So I started running back to my dorm, shaken by the thought that maybe my aunt wasn't okay after all. I reached the dorm, and everybody was out in the hall. My roommate told me my mom had just called, and that my aunt was fine. But I was still shaking, about to cry. Then, for the next few days, all I watched was the news.
September 11, 2001 was terrible indeed. We should take our feelings of horror as we saw our innocent civilians suffer, however, when we do the same to others. It does not only affect the USA.
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Patricia | 18 | Ohio
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#235 | Sunday, November 4th, 2001
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i think i first realised something wasn't right when i saw the number of people on the street. i was working in the restaurant of a midtown hotel at the time, and happened to glance out the window to see what looked like a small parade going by on the sidewalk. it was roundabout 10am...too early yet for lunch, but late enough that most folks should've long since been settled in their offices. still, i just kind of shrugged it off. looking back on it, there was also an unusual amount of phone-ringing going on in the main hall, but at the time i thought nothing of it. i was just concentrating on doing my damn job so no-one would be too p.o.'d when i decided to dash early...the weather was incredible, and being as it was the start of september, i was going to take full advantage of the summer sun while it lasted.
then the hysterical guy came running in. i don't know who he was, all i do know is that he told us the world trade centre had been attacked by terrorists and the whole city was being shut down, and then promptly ran back out into the street again. no one knew whether to take him seriously or not, but as we stood around in shock watching the crowds of exiled workers outside get denser, we figured we'd better. as our brunchers fled, we all started grabbing our stuff to leave, even as we'd not yet been told to...most of us were anticipating a long trek home as the subways had been shut down, and though it hadn't actually sunken in to ANYONE exactly what was going on, i think i speak for all of us when i say we just wanted out of manhattan.
we didn't have to worry about permissions, though, as it turned out. the restaurant was officially closed down before even one of us could leave.
even as my coworkers and i joined the man stampede up lexington avenue, i really had no clue how bad the situation was. as we walked, i took out my mobile and began ringing people i knew would be in the city at the time, and a load of us agreed to convene in (or at least around...if they too had decided to close) a pub up in the e90's and make the rest of the journey to the bronx and points northward as a group. turns out the place WAS open, packed to capacity, in fact, and each and every one of their big-screen tvs, usually reserved for sports matches, broadcasted video footage of the towers being hit. i think seeing that...the second one in particular, being literally sliced in half by the aeroplane...was what jolted me into reality. this was not an accident. this was not a minor event that would be forgotten in a week's time. this was an all-out attack on a city that had seemed just hours before to be completely invincible. i didn't even want to think about the number of people that might have been killed, but i knew at that point it was going to be astronomical.
we ended up having to walk as far as 149th street in the bronx before the trains began running again. it was a relief, yeah, but honestly in the condition the lot of us were in, it didn't make too much of a difference. i don't know what time it was exactly when i got back to my apartment, but my answering machine was full to capacity with phonecalls from friends and family in ireland worried about the state of myself and my room mates. i'd expected those, but among them was also a call from my aunt here in new york...regarding my cousin and good friend, who happens to be a fireman. he was officially missing as of sometime that afternoon. he hadn't even crossed my mind, as he didn't work anywhere NEAR the trade centre. for nearly two days we assumed the worst of his condition, when someone finally decided to contact my aunt and uncle to tell them he was indeed alive and had been in a downtown hospital the whole time. i would learn later on that while he and his brother (also a fireman) were among the lucky ones, a number of guys they worked with who i knew through them were not. even now, most of them are still "missing"...no bodies yet or anything.
i moved to new york 2 years ago with the usual visions of the greatest city in the world. as much as i like to view myself as a cynic, or at least a realist, i was caught as much by surprise by all this as anyone else. even in my short time here, i'd come to see new york as MY city...and i, like everyone else, never thought in a million years this sort of thing could happen in MY city. but it did. and i think it can safely be said that though life will indeed go on...it has to...nothing...not this city, this country, or the world as a whole, will ever be the same again.
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ciarán | 23 | New York
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