story8710.xml

story8710.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-04

My parents know that there better be a damn good reason to wake me up at 5:45 in the morning, because I don't have classes until 9:30, and i don't normally wake up until 8. Well, the horrific events of the 11th proved to be that catalyst.

My dad woke me up by banging on my door saying "go out front and turn on Fox News Channel, there's been a massive plane crash into the WTC.

Being as my dad was an aeronautical engineer, we were discussing what could have caused a plane to crash, and we came up with the conclusion that there was a massive navigational error. Some time later, while we were watching channel 8, we saw the second plane crash and knew this was more than a navigational error, I remember saying " S--t, that was more than a accident, it looks like we're going to war!" I immediately dressed, called my mom at work and we came up with our game plans for the day, should there be any problsms. You see, my mom works in a prison, and there would be some problsms with her Arab imates, for certain.
By the time I got to school, most of the teachers were in the library watching the TV. I asked if there was any new news, and we got some just after I walked in, that there was a plane crash in Pennsylvania, and one in the Pentagon a short time beforehand. I got on the phone to my mom at work, and told her the situation. We went to our first period classes, and from there, we dispersed throughout Dayton HS, to any classrooms with cable and a TV to watch the events unfold.

My classmates were in a state of shock, and on very high alert. We had rumors circulating that military recruiters were picking up the students that were on the ?deferred deployment? list, and we were going to be locked down in our classrooms. The Christian Club held a prayer vigil at the flagpole, with 90% of the school attending. I remember e-mailing my dad warning him that we may go into a lockdown at the school until we knew the severity of the situation in NY and Washington.

I was never so glad to get home from school in my life. I called some friends from my church and found out that there was a prayer service at Reno Christian Fellowship, and I should get my butt up there. I couldn?t get there because I was scared to death of driving on Geiger Grade that night. I had never prayed so much that the pain would end, and this would be just a horrible nightmare, that would pass over in a couple of days. I also vowed to never forget the events of 9-11, and how we need to be thankful for our blessings and positive aspects that come out of every tragedy, no matter how horrible the situation, there has to be at least a little glimmer of hope in the situation.