story10878.xml
Title
story10878.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-09-10
911DA Story: Story
I was in my pre-calculus class at West Springfield High School, only a sophomore when the September 11 attacks took place. We were going over some trig functions when all of a sudden Dr. Smith, our school principal, came over the P.A. system and announced a bit vaguely that there had been a plane crash in D.C. Then he just went off the P.A. after that short message and our whole class just sat there confused and silent for a few minutes. We had no idea how serious this crash was and most of us just dismissed it as an accident of only a few injuries and no important to anyone in our school. Some of the students in my class even laughed at his message because the way Dr. Smith sounded and the brevity of the seemingly pointless announcement. We didn?t know it had anything to do with the pentagon or the twin towers.
Then the teachers would talk to one another and we began to find out more and more details of what happened. After that, my teacher turned on the T.V. and we all saw the plane crashing into the World Trade Center. That was all we did for the rest of the day. It all seemed so surreal and like a scene from a movie. I couldn?t believe it. I never paid attention to what goes on in the world, I never read the newspapers, I never watched the news, and after seeing the planes crashing into the buildings I began to wonder why this was happening because I just couldn?t fathom that something this horrible could happen to America. I always thought of America as being so safe until then.
The next day of school, I remember passing a girl in the hallways who was crying and sobbing, her face all red. I heard that some of the students? parents in my school died from the attacks and when I saw her I thought maybe it was her parents and though I felt sad that her parents had died, I was also relieved that my parents were safe.
As time passed, I grew more aware of what?s going on in the world and now I?m trying more to understand our American culture and the culture of other countries as well.
Then the teachers would talk to one another and we began to find out more and more details of what happened. After that, my teacher turned on the T.V. and we all saw the plane crashing into the World Trade Center. That was all we did for the rest of the day. It all seemed so surreal and like a scene from a movie. I couldn?t believe it. I never paid attention to what goes on in the world, I never read the newspapers, I never watched the news, and after seeing the planes crashing into the buildings I began to wonder why this was happening because I just couldn?t fathom that something this horrible could happen to America. I always thought of America as being so safe until then.
The next day of school, I remember passing a girl in the hallways who was crying and sobbing, her face all red. I heard that some of the students? parents in my school died from the attacks and when I saw her I thought maybe it was her parents and though I felt sad that her parents had died, I was also relieved that my parents were safe.
As time passed, I grew more aware of what?s going on in the world and now I?m trying more to understand our American culture and the culture of other countries as well.
Collection
Citation
“story10878.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed April 21, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/11063.