story953.xml

story953.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-31

I was home from college because I was taking a semester off to dance with a company. I was the only one at home and sleeping when the phone kept on ringing. I wasn't going to get up and answer it but after it rang for the third time I got up and went to see who it was. It was my dad telling me that he heard on the radio that a plane flew into one of the World Trade Center towers...he didn't think it was serious, maybe just a biplane. I was going to just go back to sleep thinking it was no big deal, but I decided to check it out anyway. When I turned on the TV there was a picture of both of the towers smoking heavily and news reporters trying to relay information to viewers. I got on the phone with my dad and told him that it wasn't just one plane, but two planes had crashed into both towers. Also, I told him that they were regular commercial flights. He couldn't believe it...he was on a train to work and said to keep him informed. I watched some more when it was reported that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon and by then, they had declared it a terrorist attack. I was so petrified and shocked that I could do nothing but sit there and watch, but I did put a videotape in and start recording as I knew this was history in the making. I called my mom at work to tell her what was going on and she was in shock, also. When the towers eventually collapsed I called both my parents who were relaying information to their workplaces through me, as they didn't have a TV nearby. It was really a situation where we could say nothing to describe the moment, and even the TV reporters I was watching did not know what to say. I sat in front of that TV ALL DAY LONG - from the time I turned it on until the time my parents got home around 5 pm. Even for days after our TV station was tuned to nothing but the news. It took me so long to get over watching all of that on TV and trying to soak it in, that I can't possibly imagine what was going on for those family members of the victims who were watching and learning exactly as I was. I had just come home from New York City, exactly one month before that to the date, from spending the whole summer there. My apartment looked right out onto the World Trade Center and every single night from my window when I looked out I would see all of the lights and the Twin Towers sticking out above everything else.