story6676.xml

story6676.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I was driving in my car, on my way to work, listening to NPR(NAtional Public Radio) when the programming was interupted by a somewhat confused commentator telling us that he beleived an aircraft had hit the world trade center. My first instinct was to think it was an airline crash, but within a few minutes, they reported that a second airliner had hit the world trade center. I knew at that moment..almost instantaneously..that it was terrorists attacking us. OF course the magnitude of the whole thing had not hit anyone yet..but even just the idea that terrorists had made such a blatant attack really hit hard.

When I arrived at work, all work had basically come to a stop. We all just kind of sat in stunned silence and listened to the radio.

At the time this occured, I was having a long distance relatinship with a man who worked in mid town Manhatten. I began to e-mail him..asking if he was okay. Within a few minutes, he did e-mail me and let me know that he was safe and sound He also mentioned that he was , for the most part, locked into Manhatten and even into his building. IT was a very, very scary time for those in New York. I had an insider view to this through his e-mails all througout that day. It really brought home how much technology made it possible for us to be in touch with those that we loved in cared about in New York.

Although September 11th was a stunning, terrible, scary, sad day in our history, the most amazing part about it was how americans came together in a way that we never had in our generation. It is a shame that it takes tragedy to remind us all of our patriotism, but it was hard to find someone that hadn't become proud to be an american through and through.