story2257.xml

story2257.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was a sophomore in Okemos High School. It was the beginning of second period - U.S. History class. It was before my teacher, Mrs. Glicksman started her lesson, so my friends and I were just talking (I believe the subject was about how we get too much homework). While we were chatting, the phone rang. My teacher went to get it, and we continued talking. It was nothing unusual for her to get a call during class. Since my desk was right near the phone, I was able to hear the tone of her voice, even though she spoke softly. It sounded frightened, and when I looked at her face, it certainly matched her voice. She got off the phone in a matter of seconds, and when she did, rushed over to the television. As she was changing the channels she explained to us why she was just called. It was her husband, a professor at Michigan State University, had called to tell her that something horrible had just happened. A plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers.
Confused, we all turned to the TV screen, turned on to CNN. Sure enough, we saw there was a huge tower on fire. But after looking at the picture on the screen closer, we noticed that both towers were on fire. Had the fire spread over? No... it was too far. Then another question popped into my head, what caused the plane to run into the building. I figured that it was just a helicopter or something that lost control and ended up running into the tower. But there was no video of the plane hitting, so I wasn't sure. The news soon cleared our confusion by saying that the second tower had just been hit as well. They even had footage of it: A large plane running straight into the tower. The plane didn't look like it was out of control at all, it flew without ever waviering. Also, as I said before it was big. It looked like a passenger plane. We all stared, some of us literally with our mouths open, at the screen. Nobody moved except for an occasional glance to the person sitting next to them to say, "Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening."
As we watched, there was a phone conversation going on between a TV broadcaster at the CNN headquarters and one at the Pentagon. All of a sudden, the broadcaster at the Pentagon stopped talking. A second later, he reported that he had just felt a rumble inside the building and was being exacuated. We later found out it was the third plane crashing. My fellow students and I started to get scared. What if they were more planes still out there?
Class got out and reluctantly we left our chairs to go to our next class. Surprisingly, not everyone in school (it was around 9:45 am) had known about the tragedy. I told many of my friends in the hall, and I noticed others doing the same. I rushed to my AP Statistics class to continue watching the TV. Of course, it was already on and many of my classmates were already there watching. But when class started, my teacher turned off the TV and continued with her scheduled class plan. This made me a bit angry. Something this important and historic was happening and we had to learn about the probability of rolling a six on a dice. I could tell other students were equally frusterated, but what could we do? Fourth hour orchestra and fifth hour literature composition 10 were about the same. Those teachers did let us watch TV near the end of class though. I was mainly surprised at my fifth hour teacher because her son and daughter-in-law lived in New York City, both of which worked relatively close to the towers. Wasn't she scared for them? She didn't look like it, she looked exactly as pacifistic as she usually was. But I believe that she was trying to hid her feelings so not to worry us. Sixth hour Biology, we only had busy-work to do, and the TV was on all hour. My only male teacher was glued to the screen, I don't even think he moved the whole period. After school, I went to cross-country practice. We ran only a short distance, maybe four miles that day. I believe that our coach undrestood we all wanted to get home to our families as soon as possible.
My mom picked me up from practice in our blue mini-van. I hopped in the front seat. She was usually quiet, and I could tell she was upset. I talked a little about it with her. She was at the mall when she heard over the radio. She was mostly bothered by the rumors that people were spreading around. I even remember one ridiculous one about us being bombed. Unlike the usual pop songs on the radio, it was turned National Public Radio (NPA), not a station that we usually listen to. They had discussion on what was happening and also sounds from ground zero. It was all screaming. Constant screaming.
I arrived home to my 12-year old brother and my one-year old nephew. We were babysitting my nephew for my half sister that day, thank god. He was so happy that day. He would just giggle and gurgle. My mom would just hold and hug him. I believe he was a huge comfort for her. My brother was rather impartial. I don't think he really understood the magnitude of the disaster. My dad came home around 5:30 from work. He's a ob/gyn doctor in Lansing. My mom usually works in the office w/ him, but she was taking a day off that day. My dad is from Bolivia, my mom is a straight desendant of the first Pilgrims who came to America (the Whites). Even though my dad usually showed more loyalty to his native country, on 9/11, he was surprisingly patriotic. He wanted to go out and get a flag as soon as possible and would barely leave the tv screen.
I did my homework (i only had a bit) and watched TV until 10. I was exhausted, mainly mentally, but physically as well. With so many feelings rushing through my head, it took a while to get to bed, but I finally did it and finished off the worst day in my living history.