story20415.xml

story20415.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

September 11,2001 it seemed like a normal day for most of the day. None of my first or second period teachers had turned on the news, in fact they acted as if it were a normal day too, until fifth period. My teacher was late so me and my friends were waiting for the teacher to open up the room when one of them said that that World Trade Centers had been attacked and the Pentagon had been attacked too. I thought it was a joke and didn't even know what the World Trade Centers were. He kept persisting and when the teacher finally got there I asked her and she said that it was true and then turned on the TV. The first image I saw was both the buildings burning. It was shocking, I didn't know how to react. So many things were going through my head, I didn't know if my dad was alive, I didn't know if my brother was alive. Everyone in the class was stuck to the news. The bell rang and no one wanted to go because they wanted to watch the news. When I got home my dad and my brother were waiting there. We sat down and watched the news all day and into most of the night just trying to figure out how this could happen and who did it. I remember throughout the entire school day just staring out the windows watching for any planes in the sky just in case they decided to attack the school. I had a horrible paranoia feeling. The attacks changed everything, since my dad is retired military he was very concerned about strangers calling the house and for a couple of days he didnt have to go to work since he worked at Fort Belvoir and he just sat there and watched the news. For a couple of days all we could do was watch, it was a terrible idle feeling. Later my dad said that every generation has that event where everyone remembers exactly where they were when that happened. For him it was 9/11 and the assasination of JFK. For my grandparents it was Pearl Harbor and the assasination of JFK. 9/11 was a terrifying experience but I think we shouldn't let this fear blind us, we should learn from it and know how to react next time. This was a horrible experience but it was a learning experience for me and every other american.