story8001.xml

story8001.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-19

I was sleeping in my bed with my boyfriend, my roommate, was sleeping underneath on the bottom bunk in our dorm room. A friend and neighbor came banging on the door yelling something about planes. My roommate answered the door to our friend's screaming. In a half asleep stupor my roommate asked if her boyfriend was alright, and if he was why on earth do we care. Realizing something was going on we turned on NBC news. At the time, only one building was hit. I sat and watched believing that it was some kind of accident, not an attack. I soon realized it was so much more. I threw a blank tape in the VCR and hit record. Being a history major and a future teacher, the first thing on my mind was preserving a piece of this event for my future students. I decided to attend class at 10:30 where I sat for an hour listening to the influx of false information and details coming from fellow student. Following class I met with my boyfriend who was still trying to get in touch with his father in NY who frequently works in the city and does business in the trade center. After many hours, we finally made contact and he was ok. I was also trying to make contact with my cousin who is a flight attendant for United Airlines out of San Fransico. Again all was ok. It was a scary time. Overall, there was way too much time to think.
As time went by, contact was made with more friends in NY and all over the country. Total losses included my boyfriend's second cousin who was killed in the trade center. His Uncle Mike is a DC fire captain. They lost a fellow fireman, Glenn Wilkenson, in the disaster. It was a rough day for all of us. The pain and suffering will always remain in our hearts. The best thing to do is to move on and show the world that we cannot be trampled on and beat down.