story4213.xml

story4213.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

It was my one morning to sleep in. I was grateful for not having to get up early. I was the only person home, my mother was on vacation, my father was at work, and my brother was in college. I woke up to my radio playing. The morning DJ was saying something about a plane crash. I didn't think it was very important and my mind wasn't working it out because I had just woken up. As my mind became more clear I heard them say a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. My entire body snapped to attention. I jumped out of bed and turned on a TV as fast as possible. As the TV came on I could see one of the World Trade Center towers burning. I sat down, but less than 30 seconds later I was on my feet again in disbelief that another plane had just slammed into the other tower. I couldn't think but instinctively I went to the shower because I had to get ready for school. I did everything as quickly as possible so I could see as much TV coverage as possible before I left for school. When i got to school hardly anyone knew about it. The Principal came on the announcements to explain what had happened and to say that we weren't allowed to watch the coverage on TV. I was in band at the time and they made us turn off the TV, but unwilling to let that stop us we found another small TV, smuggled it into a practice room and watched more TV. We were all huddled around the TV when suddenly one of the Towers started to collapse. No one could move or say anything and not too long after the other one collapsed. Everyone sat there staring at the TV until the last possible second when we had to leave to get to the next class on time. I sat in geometry with my mind wandering. I coculdn't think of anything but the catastrophe. Despite the announcement every teacher let us watch the TV reports. For the rest of the day my mind ran over the scene of the plane crashing into the buildings and then them collapsing into a pile of rubble.