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#2398 | Wednesday, September 11th, 2002
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Last September 11 I woke up thinking it was a normal day but I knew that my mom would have surgery in a couple of hours. I got dressed and ready for school and was excited what the new day would bring since I had started school days before. I ate my breakfast and my dad told me to go make my parents’ bed. Next to my parents’ bed is a radio, which I always listen to when I am in the room doing something. As I listened to music a news flashed interrupted me. They said that one of the World Trade Centers was on fire. I really didn’t believe it because little fires do happen by accident sometimes. I decided to ignore it and turned on the television to see it was true and was horrified. I ran to my parents to tell them what had happened and they also looked at the image on the screen in shock.
During the whole day all of my teachers had their televisions on watching for updates on the tragedy and what was going to happen next. During the days following the tragedy, many friends of mine thought that they had lost loved ones but weren’t sure. It was very scary and I didn’t know what was going to happen to the nation. I felt like the World was coming to an end.
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Carm | 17 | California
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#2399 | Wednesday, September 11th, 2002
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September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday, and on Tuesday mornings I volunteer at an organization in Washington, DC which provides meals for homebound persons with AIDS. I took the underground metro to where I volunteer, leaving home around 8:30 am and arriving there around 9:00 am. My supervisor was not around, so I just started doing my job of packing meals for delivery. The kitchen is very noisy, and although a large radio was turned on quite loud, I could not hear what was happening. People would go to the radio, listen a while, and then make exclamations. I really didn't pay a lot of attention. Then around 8:40 am people started leaving the building, and becoming curious, I did so also, and saw a great deal of black smoke coming from across the Potomac river. I asked a woman what had happened, and she told me a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. I saw she had been crying. She also said two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. I asked her if they were small planes, and she said no, they were large commercial airliners. This was the first I knew of what had been happening. I started to panic not just from the shock, but because my patner worked at the US courthouse in Washington, and there were rumors of car bombs going off in front of the State Department, and that the Mall was on fire. I called my partner, and he said he was OK and was going to stay at the courthouse though everyone was told to leave. He said he felt safer there than on the streets, where it was mass panic. I remember the rest of the day in kind of a daze, finishing my shift, going home on the metro (which I was surprised was running), walking my dogs, and being glued to the TV. I remember making chili for dinner and my brother from California sending an e-mail to make sure I was OK. Most of that day that I remember was not really being afraid, but how quiet it was, except for never-ending sirens, helicopters, and military jets flying over. As well as armed soldiers on the street corners of the Capitol Hill area I live in. A day to remember indeed. I wasn't sure there would still be a world in another month, but here we are a year later, September 11, 2002. A world still so much the same, yet so very different. I haven't been to New York since the attacks, and want to go there. I don't have the answers to the endless questions raised by 9-11. I just hope the rest of the much-hyped new millenium is a big improvement over it. As corny as it sounds, we're either going to learn to live together, or we're all going to go up in flames.
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Christopher | 53 | District of Columbia
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#2400 | Wednesday, September 11th, 2002
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The morning of September Eleventh, I was scheduled to be on a military base doing some computer consulting work. There was a problem with a power transformer, though, so I was sent back to the office about the time that the first plane hit.
When I heard that a plane had run into the World Trade Center, I laughed, thinking it was a Cessna or something. Then a second plane hit, then rumors about a "bomb at the Pentagon." I watched in disbelief as the towers fell, thinking we must have been watching special effects or something. It made me, former Airborne Infantry, cry in front of my peers.
You need to understand exactly how much I hate New York -- been there twice and never want to go back. Don't like the (typical) New Yorkers who have moved to the South, etc. It didn't matter on September 11th though -- I, like the rest of the country, was a New Yorker that day.
It's odd how it affected me. I knew no-one who died. I'd never been to the towers. I can't stand the city. But it was all my wife could to to keep me from re-enlisting and volunteering for OCS, knowing how rare good Infantry officers are.
I'm still emotional about it. I hate the way our country has responded, and the power-grabs we've been seeing in the last year. I hate the rubber-stamp patriotism that I see everywhere, but I guess my definition of "patriotism" is different than that of the typical SUV owner who feels compelled to put a sticker on his/her car.
I guess all I do know is that I'm not the same as I was a year and a day ago. I don't think I ever will be.
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DZ | 31 | Georgia
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#2401 | Wednesday, September 11th, 2002
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I had come home from a very busy night at work, geriatric medicine, 42
patients. I was exhausted, and just
wanted to catch some morning news before
I fell asleep.
Turned on the tv at home, and to my
disbelief, the WTC tower was on fire!
I did not know what had happened, nor did CNN at the time. Then, I saw out the
corner of my eye a large plane fast
approaching and then hitting the other
tower with such force...and I just could
not believe I was seeing this happen live in my livingroom on tv.
I was stunned, and unable to piece
together what had just happened, nor
could I feel anything but disbelief at
the time. I sat there, staring at the
tube and kept saying ,"No. It can't be
real". "It can't be really happening".
I will never forget that I watched it
happen....
I was just married 9 days before.
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Laurel | 45 | Canada
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#2402 | Wednesday, September 11th, 2002
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On september 11, 2001 i felt very sad yet happy because it was my birthday! i felt very bad for all the people who died! i pray that the familys who lost their lives on september 11, 2001.
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Lyndsai | 15 | Hawaii
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