story617.xml

story617.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-16

On September 10, 2001, I just finished working in the financial aid office at my school and my fianc?e and my son met me down here around 6 PM to go get some dinner. We decided on the Burger King across from the towers and across from century 21.
That night I was up really really late which caused me to wake up two hours after I was suppose to. Normally I am at school between 8 and 8:30 but on this day I didn?t leave my house until after the first plane hit. I saw it on the TV but I was determined to get to school. I didn?t think it was anything serious. So, I went on with my daily routine. When I got my son to the babysitter, she told me that both towers were hit and I wouldn?t be able to get to school. Ignoring her, I just left desperately trying to find a way to get to Borough of Manhattan Community College located in Manhattan on Chambers and Greenwich which is about 5 blocks away from the towers. She kept saying, there is no way your going to get down there.
I was in the south part of the Bronx near the 138th street bridge that runs over the Hudson River, I saw the smoke in the sky. It was a huge cloud of smoke and it was really frightening. I started to panic because all my co-workers and all my friends were down in that area. My fianc?e was also in that area. I tried to call him but I could not get through on the pay phone that I was using. There was so much traffic that people just started getting out of their cars and standing around looking up in the sky.
A few minutes later, someone shouted, ?the Pentagon has just been hit!? I don?t remember how long I was there because at that moment I lost all concept of time. I was so scared. I tried reaching the school to see if all of my co-workers in the financial aid office had made it out. I couldn?t get in touch with anyone in Manhattan. So, I called my aunt and told her that I was okay and I never made it to school. She was so relieved because she was the reason that I went to bed so late. She said, ? I guess I can?t be sad for making you stay up so late. I saved your life.?
(That morning I was suppose to go to the KB toy store at the bottom of the towers.) She told me that my fianc?e had called her and told her that he was stuck on West 14th street and to let me know he was okay.
I finally gathered myself together and went to go get my son. While I was at the babysitter, she was getting hysterical because people in her family were missing.
I finally left her house around 11:30 am and trying to get home was a huge task for me. I tried to catch a cab and no one wanted to pick me up if I wasn?t going to Manhattan. (How could anyone be so selfish at a time like this.)? All of the bridges were closed to traffic going into Manhattan. So, my son and I took the bus. It normally takes us 30 to 45 minutes that day it took us 2 hours.
We still weren?t home yet. It took us another 45 minutes to get home. That day was so crazy for me however, in the Bronx where I live, so many people were shopping like nothing ever happened.
As soon as I got home, my mother called me from California crying. She was saying how much she loves me and how worried she was about me. This tragedy brought a lot of families back together but us, as a city was still apart.
For me the next three weeks were the hardest. I refused to go into Manhattan until it was time to go back to school. The first week or two, no one talked about my college. I didn?t hear when I was supposed to go back to school; I didn?t hear anything.
All you heard about were the high schools and the elementary schools. I mean granted they are young people, but they didn?t suffer like B.M.C.C did. We lost one of our own buildings that was hit when one of the buildings fell. So now our main campus, which was only, equipped to hold 7,000 students now, holds 17,000 students daily. It hurt that our school didn?t get the attention that it should have gotten.
When I finally found out that I go back to school on October 1,2001, I got really excited. I?ve always enjoyed school but this excitement was different. It was like being happy after a terrible storm. You know your life will never be the same but your happy that at least you can try to get back to normal.
On October 1, I got off the train at Franklin Ave. in Manhattan and started walking towards school when I felt this huge darkness come over me. I started breathing hard. It wasn?t from the stuff in the air like the media wants you to believe, it was the fact that I?ve seen these two towers hovering over my school for two years. I never paid them that much attention but now that they were gone I could help but to be sad. I mean I never realized there was sun in lower Manhattan because the towers were so tall, it was our shade. It was our protector. Everyday after that coming to school was such a drag for me. It was emotionally draining. You try to cope with what?s going on but having to be down there everyday, I felt like one of the rescue workers. Completely exhausted. The school tried its best to accommodate us with help and with allowing a moment to express our feeling in class. But for many of us, that will be a day that lingers on our hearts and minds forever.

I graduate this semester. And the only thing that I can think about is getting as far away from down here as possible. But that?s unlikely. Because wherever you go in NYC, you can still see were the towers should be. And then it will feel like you were there all over again.