story9399.xml

story9399.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-07-31

I did not know anyone who was in the World Trade Center. I didnt usually watch the news at that time mainly because I was in school. It was my senior year of high school and I remember hearing on the radio in my car that a plane had crashed into a building. I didnt think anything of it and had no idea at that time what it meant. I walked into the classroom and my teacher had the news on and at that moment they were showing live footage of the second plane crashing into the tower. I could not beleive my eyes. We were all in such great shock. We were supposed to have a fairly big exam that day but somehow it just did not seem important anymore. We spent the entire hour and a half watching the tv and talking about what was going on. When class was over, I drove back to my main high school (my class was off campus at a health center). If I hadnt carpooled with a friend that day I dont know what I would have done. I felt all jittery and could feel the adrenaline inside my body. My dad was supposed to be at the Sears Tower in Chicago that day and so immediate thoughts were running through my head of what if something were to happen close to home. Its against school rules to have a cell phone but on the drive home I had to call him to make sure he was ok.

As we were driving through the town to get back to the high school I remember thinking how quiet everything seemed. There were barely any cars on the road and it was just a completely eerie feeling since at that particular time of day there was always alot of traffic. Nobody was outside walking on the sidewalk or playing in the streets like they usually were.

The rest of the day at school was out of the norm. In one class we watched more of the news and in my last class of the day we were allowed to do whatever we liked but the tv was kept off since my teacher wanted some sense of normalness.

That day I had to babysit right after school for a little girl who was 5 years old at the time. When I asked her what she wanted to do she said, "I dont want to watch what mommy was watching. I dont like the show where people jump out of buildings. Its scary." If she only knew that what mommy was watching wasnt a staged show and that it was live footage of something that was really happening.