story9177.xml

story9177.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-04-01

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 started out like any other day. I raced out of bed, like every morning, just in time for to get to school. Around the time the first plane hit the north tower, I had arrived at school. Of course, it had only been a matter of minutes, so nobody really knew anything was going on. I hung out and talked to my friends in the commons until the first bell rang. My first period class was Earth Science. I vaguely remember some commotion, but nobody ever said what was going on. We had a dreaded test so first period pretty much just went along as every other day. After first period, I had study hall in the commons, where I sat down and started talking to my friend, Tamie. There was a lot of commmotion going on and I was really confused. Tamie said something about how she was driving for driver's ed and heard on the radio that some planes crashed into the twin towers. At this time, it had only been maybe an hour or so after the second plane hit and nobody knew what was going on. The whole second period I was just confused and still didn't underdstand what was really going on and what this all meant. They had turned on the TV and I watched over and over again planes hitting the twin towers and live footage of the smoke coming out of the building. I also watched as both of them collapsed inward and information about one plane that hit the Pentegon and another that crashed in Pennsylvania. By the end of second period, there was buzz about what was going on. Some people were saying it was a declaration of war from some other country, others were still saying it was an accident and some were still in a daze like me. Honestly, nobody knew. Not even National Security. During third period, we just pretty much went on with everything normally. Fourth period helped clear my confusion. It was history class with Mr. T. He flipped on the TV and explained the whole situation with as much info as he knew. Then we kept watching more information unravel on TV. Everything was happening so fast. By the end of the day we were aware that it was a terrorist attack and they already had some suspects.
The next 24 hours and days and even weeks were a blur. We had our supsect--Osama bin Laden. Surrounding buildings also collapsed. I watched time after time of the two towers being hit and collapsing to the point where it made me sick.
I looked through my pictures of my trip to Washington D.C. and New York that I had taken in July 2001---less than two months before. This is where September 11th really hit me. My trip. I had gone to Pennsylvania (where one plane crashed), I remember one of the last things I saw leaving the D.C. area was the Pentagon (where another plane crashed), and I definately remember those towers that I have in almost every picture of New York I own. It's kind of ironic, the whole time I was in NY, I really didn't know what the twin towers were. Also, I stayed at the hotel on the grounds of the Newark, NJ airport (where one of the planes left). Almost every time the subject comes up, my mom says "what if it had happend two months earlier when you were there?" I thank God every day that I wasn't. My only wish was that nobody else was either.
We talked a lot about what happned in history class in the following days and even now, more than a year later. I don't think I'll ever forget a single moment of that day. Strange how it affected me in such a weird way even though I knew nobody even close to being there that fateful day. But it did.
Every time I see those awful images of the towers collapsing, hear more talk about "terrorism", or even think of something as simple as New York City in general, I have to stop and remember to breathe.