story182.xml

story182.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-07

It started out as a normal day. I woke up feeling, as usual, tired but ready for the day. I had no idea that, along with the rest of the world, I would remember this day forever. My morning classes continued as usual, with no mention of anything that had happened. I learned later that many other studets had been picked up by their parents, and taken home. No one was taken out of any of my classes, so I was oblivious to what was happening in the world around me.
Just before lunch, at about 11:45, I had to give a project to one of my teachers. When I walked into the classroom a group of teachers were gathered at a table listening to the radio. I wouldn't have noticed this if they hadn't turned it off just after they saw me enter the room. I still didn't think much of it. When I got in line, n the cafeteria, to buy my lunch, one of my friends said to me, "There's been a threat to the US." Being myself, me reaction was to think she was joking. Of course I didn't laugh, it was a bad joke, but I said, "yeah, sure." But then I noticed that her face was serious. "I'm not joking," she said. That was when i realized that the cafeteria talk was not the normal loud noise. It was loud but, although I couldn't understand what was being said, there was an unusual silence behind it. I could hear people talking about the World Trade Center being bombed. At that time every emotion i have ever felt went through me - even, for a brief moment, a form a hysterical happiness. Finally it subsided to disbelief and worry. Not for my parents, i was pretty sure that they weren't in New York that day, but for all the people who had been. Later the school held an essemble telling us about everything that had happened. At that point i had no idea what to think. I felt that I had to control every thing I felt, because it was the only thing I had to grab onto. In truth I didn't want to be the one grabbing, but the one of the ones who still stood tall after this.
When I got home my parents made sure I knew absolutly everything that they knew had happened. They also reassured me that my entire family was safe. The first thing I did when I got home was watch the news. As I watched the planes hit the towers on television a rush of everything that had happened to me that day came back to me. I couldn't get away from the news, no matter how hard I tried. Even just watching the same thing happen over and over again, I was glued to the TV like never before. I wished there was something i could have done to help, and still do. But I also felt something else, an undescribable feeling, at being a part of history.