story1389.xml

story1389.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-22

When life changed for us all, I was fast asleep in my bed thousands of miles away. I had started my first semester of grad school and had an 8:00 class that gave me fits. I woke up late again, and rushed out of my apartment without checking the day's news. The shuttle was full of people on cell phones, and I caught bits and pieces of their conversations. "Somebody's going to pay for this." "Ohmigod, one of them's leaning?" I didn't know what they were talking about or that they were talking about the same thing. It wasn't until I got to class that I learned the news. Like many Americans, I'm sure, I thought the damage had been exaggerated. Hadn't the towers withstood a bombing a few years earlier without too much incident? The Pentagon? Indestructible. It didn't take long to learn that wasn't so. I got home in time to see both towers collapse. The image haunts me. I'm one of the lucky ones. I don't know anyone who was lost in the attacks. I don't know anyone who lost anyone, but we all lost something that day. We lost our innocence.