story7728.xml

story7728.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-17

Today is the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11th, 2001. I cannot believe that time had flown by so fast and that it has been a full year since that tragic day. September eleventh started just like any other day. I got up and got ready to start school. My sister drove us to school and I went to my first period history class. Once history was over, I went to my locker and hung out with my friends during our twenty-minute break. I left for my Latin two class about five minutes early because I needed to get some help with my homework from the previous night. I went into my class and started to get out my homework for some extra help. Just then, another foreign language teacher entered our classroom where my teacher, Magistra, and I were working. She told Magistra to turn on the TV right this second. She did and that??s when I first found out about the attack. I sat down in my seat and was very confused at what was happening. I watched the TV to see if I could figure out what was going on. I soon found out that American Airline flight 11 had crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. The newscasters weren??t sure if it was an accident or not, they just knew what they saw. The bell rang and now everyone was in our class. Magistra stood up in our class and started to talk to us. She knew that wasn??t sure if we had heard or not but she told us the terrible news anyway. She started to cry as she was talking. We found out that she had 3 family members that worked in the World Trade Center and that her brother was leaving on a flight that morning. I felt so bad for her and everyone else in the world that did not know if a loved one was dead or alive. We kept watching the TV and at about 9:10 another plane (Untied Airline flight 175) crashed into the south tower. Everyone in my class was silent. We were all shocked at what was happening. Magistra couldn??t watch the TV anymore. She asked us if we could turn it off for about 15 minutes. We knew she was very worried and everyone said it would be fine. We started to do some Latin class work because Magistra thought it would be a good idea to get our minds off of the attacks. We turned the TV back on about 15 minutes later and learned that from the newscasters that everyone was told to leave the area because they weren??t sure if the towers were stable. I can remember them showing that people were running down the stair and out the doors of the WTC. I also remember them showing people jumping out of windows and flailing through the air to their death. It was horrible to watch people dying. I remember looking at the clock at 10:05 and returning my gaze back on the TV when the south tower collapsed and everyone started running to get out of the way. I??ll never forget that sight. It just fell to the ground each floor crushing the one below it. The north tower collapsed somewhere around 10:30. It wasn??t too long until they started to talk about the Pentagon attacked and evacuated. Our principal got on the intercom and made an announcement that the Pentagon had also been hit. We live about fifteen miles away from DC so it was very nerve-racking. He told us that we could use our cell phones to call anyone if we needed to. He also said that the counselors were there if we needed to talk to someone. Magistra was much more upset when she found out the Pentagon had been hit because her husband works there. She could not get in touch with anyone, nor could anyone else. Second block ended and we were told to proceed throughout the rest of the day. I went to Chemistry where all we did the whole class was watch the TV. After class I had lunch and I sat and talked about everything with my friends. I found out from all of them if they had any loved ones in New York or in DC. After lunch I went to P.E. and once again we watched the TV to find out more information. Once school was over my sister and I went home, only to find out that my dad was home too. We found out that my Dad had gone down to HUD in DC, which is right across the Potomac River from the Pentagon, for a meeting earlier on in the day. As it turns out, he actually heard the plane fly over the HUD building before it hit the Pentagon. They were told to evacuate the building and so he came home. I didn??t think that I really had any close family members to worry about. None of my family lives in New York and neither of my parents work in DC anymore. It was a real shocker to find out that my Dad was out there and it scared me to think I could have lost him. We all watched TV together and after a while we had to turn it off. There was so much and this was so big. It was a day that never seemed to end, but it finally did. I cried myself to sleep that night. It??s a year later and I still can??t believe that this happened. Today as I was walking through the hallways, I was so happy to see so many people wearing red, white, and blue as proudly as they were. And in first period when we stood up to say the Pledge of Allegiance, no one stood up just because they had to, but everyone stood up because they fully believed in each and every word they were saying. I went to a September eleventh ceremony at our school tonight. It was a wonderful ceremony to respect all of those who died or lost loved ones. I came home and cried for the first time in probably a year. It still seems like it was only last week that all of this happened. I don??t know if I??ll ever be able to really get over and move on. I know that everything that happened and everything that I witnessed will always stay with me. I??ll always know where I was and what I was doing on September 11th, 2001.