story8543.xml

story8543.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-10-21

I was so excited to be traveling around Europe, visit places that I had only read about.....as a student in Washington DC my final destination was Seville, Spain. All day I had been enjoying the ambiance of Venice, Italy.....getting lost among the passageways, bartaring in the streets and feeding pigeons in St. Mark?s Square. My friend and I decided to stop in a bar around 7:00pm which means it is already 1:00pm in both NY and DC. What we see puts us into shock.....written across the bottom is written AMERICA UNDER ATTACK! But the rest of the news is all in Italian...We rushed to a local internet cafe where several other Americans were, like ourselves scrambling to contact friends in NY and DC and to find out not only what happend, but why. There as the story unfolded my tears fell as well. Even to this day the enormity of it all, the millions of people?s lives it changed forever and the future consequenses - weigh heavy on my heart. Two weeks later, I am still in Europe and the amazing support in every country is overwhelming. Complete strangers feel the need to convey their sympathy. For several days I saw all the flags at half mast and flowers pile the entry ways of all the embassies. Since I was here both before and now after the attack on the United States, I have seen a new respect develop in many Europeans. They see the wisdom of our leaders, the motivation to move on and the spirituality that resides at the core of it all. And now its not just Americans that say "God Bless America" but all the citizens of the World.

One day when I have children and they ask me where was I on September 11th, 2001, I will say that I was in Venice, but my heart was in America.

~Sarah Nashif
Senior, GMU