story1547.xml
Title
story1547.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-08-29
911DA Story: Story
I will never forget my morning commute to SFASU on September 11, 2001. Luckly, I was listening to the radio and not my CDs. A startled female radio-jockey interrupted the music and said something on the line of "Oh my God, a plane has crashed into one of the twin towers." Soon, she announced "There's another that just hit the other tower. We are under terrorist attack." She began talking about the terrorism.
These events were hard for me to phantom. How could this happen and why? My embedded belief of "Big-Ole US of A" being invincible was challenged. I feared for our safety. I did not want this to result in war. I did not want my dad to return to the service. Every time my heart pumped, I could feel adrenaline shooting through my veins and spreading throughout my body like a malignant cancer. I noticed I was speeding. I was in a hurry to get to SFA. I wanted to see actual footage.
I illegally parked closer to the main entrance. People were glued to the screen TV. They watched in horror. I remember viewing bloody victims aiding the rescue workers. They were oblivious to their injuries. They put others in need first. How noble! Then, to my shock a tower collapses. I felt my heart drop as I watched it descend. I felt sorry for all the people on the planes, inside the collapsed tower, and the surrounding area. The attack on the Pentagon was announced. I was thinking how lucky I was to be where I was standing. I felt my heart drop for the victims, their families, friends, acquantiances, and the whole country. We are all victims. For me, seeing people jumping to their death was the most troubling. Viewing this made me feel faint.
Class was about to start. Reluctantly, I stopped watching. I was hoping the professor would dismiss class.
To my dismay, he did not. How can one focus on class and note-taking when this was happening? There could have been the possiblity of more attacks! I viewed my professor as being cold. It was so difficult to focus. I managed.
Watching the news exhausted me. The fear, the suffering, the constant change of the screen. It was the topic of every channel. It was such a horrible event to see yet, I remained glued to the tube. In fact, I was mentally exhausted for about a week. Everywhere I turned, 911 was the subject.
A local mental health clinic had their waiting room T.V. (which is mounted so that one cannot change channels) on CNN. That was such an odd situation. A clinic of some potentially unstable people watching a screen with bloody, screaming people running, people crying in anguish and horror, buildings on fire and collapsing. Makes me wonder about some of the staff's mentality. I am confident in saying a patient who is there because of this event would probably not want to view its horrors.
These events were hard for me to phantom. How could this happen and why? My embedded belief of "Big-Ole US of A" being invincible was challenged. I feared for our safety. I did not want this to result in war. I did not want my dad to return to the service. Every time my heart pumped, I could feel adrenaline shooting through my veins and spreading throughout my body like a malignant cancer. I noticed I was speeding. I was in a hurry to get to SFA. I wanted to see actual footage.
I illegally parked closer to the main entrance. People were glued to the screen TV. They watched in horror. I remember viewing bloody victims aiding the rescue workers. They were oblivious to their injuries. They put others in need first. How noble! Then, to my shock a tower collapses. I felt my heart drop as I watched it descend. I felt sorry for all the people on the planes, inside the collapsed tower, and the surrounding area. The attack on the Pentagon was announced. I was thinking how lucky I was to be where I was standing. I felt my heart drop for the victims, their families, friends, acquantiances, and the whole country. We are all victims. For me, seeing people jumping to their death was the most troubling. Viewing this made me feel faint.
Class was about to start. Reluctantly, I stopped watching. I was hoping the professor would dismiss class.
To my dismay, he did not. How can one focus on class and note-taking when this was happening? There could have been the possiblity of more attacks! I viewed my professor as being cold. It was so difficult to focus. I managed.
Watching the news exhausted me. The fear, the suffering, the constant change of the screen. It was the topic of every channel. It was such a horrible event to see yet, I remained glued to the tube. In fact, I was mentally exhausted for about a week. Everywhere I turned, 911 was the subject.
A local mental health clinic had their waiting room T.V. (which is mounted so that one cannot change channels) on CNN. That was such an odd situation. A clinic of some potentially unstable people watching a screen with bloody, screaming people running, people crying in anguish and horror, buildings on fire and collapsing. Makes me wonder about some of the staff's mentality. I am confident in saying a patient who is there because of this event would probably not want to view its horrors.
Collection
Citation
“story1547.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 17, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/11221.