story6320.xml

story6320.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

When I heard on the radio that something hit the World Trade Center, I couldn't believe it. At that point they were still not sure what had happened. They came back and confirmed that it was a plane that had hit. I thought to myself, 'it must have been a small plane and what a freak accident that was.' Within minutes they came back again and said, "Oh my God, a plane just hit the second tower". I could not believe it. I remember thinking, this is not good. Something bad is happening.

Both towers had been hit by planes.

I coninued on to work and went about my normal business for about the first hour. Then they turned the TV on. We all watched in horror as the Pentagon was hit and eventually a 4th plane crashed in Pennsylvania. We watched as the Towers burned. We watched as the Towers fell. We watched people running for their lives. We watched the enormous clouds of dust and rubble settle to the ground. We heard the mind numbing silence as planes were grounded. My work is directly in the flight path of the Minneapolis/St Paul Int'l airport so on a normal day we had planes flying over every 10 minutes.

It was too much for anyone to even comprehend at that time. I felt so many emotions that I couldn't feel anything. I was numb. I wanted to tear myself away from the TV and I just couldn't. I couldn't help but watch the horror unfold. My safe world had just been shook beyond belief. I sat in that conference room glued to the TV almost all day.

When I got home from work that night, I watched more. My fiance' and I cried for the victims, thought to be up to 20,000 at that time. We cried out of fear. We cried out of anger. We cried because that was all we could do. When we went to bed that night, it was very difficult to sleep. I knew in my head that no planes were supposed to be in the sky so every time the F-16 jet circled over us, I woke up. The night seemed to last forever.

The next morning, I didn't want to get out of bed. I was scared. The media kept telling everyone to go on with their lives as normal as possible. They said if we don't we are letting the terrorists win. But, I couldn't do it. I stayed home from work that day and watched the TV most of the morning. Then I decided there was something I could do. I went to the Red Cross blood drive they were holding in the town where I live. Ironically, they had it scheduled for that day prior to the attacks. I hadn't donated blood in years. I waited in line for over 2 hours. It was the least I could do. Who knows if my blood helped anybody, but I felt like I was doing something.

The planes remained grounded until the weekend. And even then, it took a long time for things to return to somewhat normal.

There was constant news coverage for months following the attacks. Eventually, I was tired of crying so I stopeed watching. I wanted to be happy again. I wanted my life to get back to normal and stop worrying about what might happen.

I personally wanted revenge on the people that did this to my country. It felt like our government was dragging their feet, although deep down I knew they weren't. They had to plan it out just right for our response to be effective. And our troops are being very effective over in Afghanistan. The people there have more freedom than they have had in years. There isn't constant war over there anymore.

Lives are getting back to normal now, one year later. I do not take anything for granted like I used to. I call my family more than I did before. I now understand how lucky I am to live in this wonderful, free country. I always knew before that my freedom was something I should cherish, but I don't think I did. It was just the way it was and I didn't think it would ever change, so I didn't think about it. I am now more thankful for everything I have. I, like most other Americans, have become more patriotic than I ever was before. And, I am proud to be an American!!!!!