story2088.xml

story2088.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-10

I would like to start by saying that my heart goes out to all the families of those who were lost. I can remember that day like it was ysterday, and it is now a year later. My thoughts and actions of that day flow through my head everyday.
I am in high school, and that day, I was in third period, which goes from 8:30 A.M. to 10:10 A.M. This class happened to be Journalism for me. In that class, if we did not have the newspapers, we would turn on the TV to watch news. This turned out to be the worst day that we would watch the news. I can remember watching and then came this "Breaking News" sign that said an airplane had hit the WTC.
About 5 or 10 minutes later, we watched the second plane hit. It was horrifying. The whole class now knew that the first one was no accident. Then, the Pentagon. Now, the first two, although horrifying, I could almost deal with because I don't know anyone in New York, but my dad works at the Pentagon, and I was freaking out now. The teachers recieved emails saying to not turn on their TV's, but since we already knew about it, we conviced our teacher to keep the TV on.
At aroud 11 A.M., I ended up going home with my friend, against what the school wanted, but I just knew that I could not be there anymore. Guidance had been set up in our school auditorium, but there was nothing they could do with the phone lines the way they were. It was mass pandimonium, as everyone wanted to talk to their loved one.
When I arrived home, we had a message from all of my family except my dad. I started freaking out, because that is the one message I wanted on my machine. I later found out that my dad was fine, and he was two sides away from the side that got hit eating breakfast in the cafeteria. He later told me that him and a few of his buddies were half-joking that they would be next, just a few minutes before they were evacuated after being hit.
Most of my family are or were firefighters, so I have grown up around the firehouse, and know the sort of family that it is. I have also always had the respect for what they do everyday. This has only grown more since last Setemember 11. I also believe that firefighters are finally being recognized for what they have been doing day in and day out for a long time, a long time before September 11, 2001.
I live with this as a part of my life everyday. When the people that are my age have kids, and their kidslearn about this day, it won't be the same as living through it. Nothing can unite anyone like that day did. This is my story and I hope that maybe some people can read this and better understand what happened that day through my eyes. God Bless the USA!