story9966.xml

story9966.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-12

i don't normally listen to the radio or watch tv in the morning, and this was no abnormal morning. i got up and had a 9:30 class at NOVA, on the way to class i was listening to a cd and nothing seemed wrong. when i got there my friend was just pulling in after me and we parked together and walked inside joking and have a good time. we sat down in class and some people looked worried but we didn't pay any attention to it and just chatted amongst ourselves. after a few minutes the professor walked in and said "I'm sure everyone knows what's going on.....right?". my friend and i looked at eachother and were puzzled, so for those of us to ignorant to pay attention to unfolding events he told us that the north tower had been hit and no one was sure if it was an accident or not, and that because of this he was cancelling class and for the students to go home and be with thier families. so my friend and i thought it was just going to be a day off, and that it was just some sort of freak accident, so we left class kind of joking about going to work out at the gym and maybe catch a movie, but also kind of interested in what happened. so we sat in my car and popped out the cd and as soon as we did we heard ".....my god, the north tower has been hit, holy !@#$ what's going on........." so we got real worried real quick. so we changed to another station and heard "...... folks this is a very sad day in U.S. history we are under attack and the pentagon has been hit......". that very second, i felt very ill and my friend got really really pale.......... his step father works in the pentagon, and is in there, as well as my best friend's father, and my aunt. so we took off form the parking lot back to my friends house praying to god his step father and our friends father and my aunt were all safe. all the way home i was calling my friend's family, and not getting through, getting a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that someone close to me was no longer, it was hard to hold back the tears, so very very hard. but thankfully as we pulled up to my friends house i got ahold of my friends mother and thank god his dad was in a confrence in another state and left 2 nights b4. but i still had that feeling, and when we got into my friend house his mother was crying her eyes out and i almost lost it. she couldn't get ahold of my friends step father and he was home.so we sat there hoping and hoping that he was alright after about an hour we hear him tear down the street and pull in, it was the best sound ever. it turned out he was on the adjacent side to where it was hit when the plane hit, he was alright and that just left one person, and i couldn't get a hold of my mom to find out. at around 3 when the phone lines were clearing up i got ahold of my mom and found out my aunt was missssing.......... i had to leave the room. around 4 when they said all flights were grounded we heard a horrable noise.......a plane in the air. we live by dulles airport, so it makes it that much more un-nerving. we went outside for the first time in hours a looked up and right there was a plane flying so low that i thought it was going to clip the tree tops, it scared the shit out of me. it was followed by 2 fighter jets, so we just ran back inside hoping that the plane was just landing and there was nothing wrong. around 8 i felt good enought to make the 10 min drive home, and went home. when i got there, i found out that my aunt was ok, just scared, she had been missing cause she got lost in the pentagon, in all the thick smoke, but she made it out none the less. so then i packed up and went to new york, i wanted to help in any way i could, but i got turned away because i was only 18 and had no experiance. i remember that day perfectly and clearly, i can remember the smells, the sights,and everything i felt. 2001 is the year i graduated high school, and the same year that the worst single attack on american soil. it changed every single proud americans life. i had forgotten what my country meant to me until that day, scince then i have never been more proud to be an american, i love this country, and if you are reading this you must love it too, so god bless us and this country.