story491.xml

story491.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-01

On September 10th I flew from National Airport in the D.C. area to Oceanside California. It was an early morning flight, and I remember driving past the Pentagon and taking a good look at it. I'd never really paid attention to it before, it was just a building that was always there, but for some reason I took a long look at it that morning. Thinking back to that feels a little weird.
My fiance was in the Marine Corps, and was to return from a 6 month deployment to the middle east on Sept. 15th. The biggest worry on my mind was finding my way from the airport in San Diego to the car rental place, and from there to Oceanside, which is near Camp Pendleton where he was stationed. I didn't know that those worries would seem like the smallest most miniscule problems the following day. That night I checked into my hotel room, drove around the area a little, and fell asleep early. Around 630am California time I woke up and was about to get in the shower when my cell phone rang. I answered it, and it was my dad. I could tell something was wrong, but when he told me that planes had hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon I thought he was kidding, I was in shock. Then what he said hit me, and I turned the news on. Seeing the footage of the planes hitting both towers, and seeing the smoke coming from the Pentagon obviously made me extremely upset. Both of my parents work within a mile from the Pentagon, and I was worried that more planes would be heading that direction. Then I started worrying that the west coast would be next, and was afraid because I was there by myself. After getting off of the phone with my dad I tried to get through to my mom for over an hour. The phones were tied up, I couldn't get through to anyone back home in the DC area. My dad had been standing outside of where he works when the plane flew overhead going towards the Pentagon, and he had called my mom (she works in Crystal City) to tell her to leave. So she had gotten a head start on leaving the city, and was lucky in that manner. People were literally walking away from the city, because traffic was so tied up you couldn't drive anywhere.
Back in California, I ended up in the lobby of the hotel trying to find the closest place that I could get on the internet. Seeing the news footage on the tv in the lounge started me crying all over again, and the girl who worked at the front desk was nice enough to give me a hug and try to comfort me. It's something I will never forget, having someone I didn't even know comforting me. I found my way to a public computer station so I could email my fiance and ask him to call me that night, and went back to the hotel. I finally got through to my mom. We did a lot of crying over the phone together, trying to understand why people could hate us so much to do that. I also eventually got through to my best friend back home, and tried numerous times to get through to the Red Cross to find a place to donate blood. Later that day I couldn't take sitting in my room alone watching the news footage, so I left to find something to do. The mall was closed, in fact anyplace that a lot of people would normally gather at was closed. I ended up at a Target store walking around, just to be around people and try to take what had happened off of my mind for awhile. The worst part was knowing this had happened in my hometown, where I grew up, and that I couldn't do anything to help. I was worried about the President's safety, but knew that our country was in good hands with President Bush as our leader and took comfort in that.
The next 2 weeks were very hard. My fiance returned from his deployment. Something that I had looked forward to for so long and that should have been joyous and exciting instead felt numb. Most of that first week is still a blur for me. I just remember being glued to the tv a lot, and trying to find out if the people I knew that worked at the Pentagon and the WTC were ok. The second week I spent trying to figure out how I was going to get home. I've never been a fan of flying, and after this I was pretty much terrified. I considered staying in CA, and also considered taking a train home (3 days!), but in the end I flew home. I wasn't about to let THEM win, and I knew if I didn't get the courage to fly then, I probably never would again.