story542.xml

story542.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-07

I was working in a dental office on the morning of September 11. We had just started seeing our first patients of the day, when one of them came in and told us that one of the trade towers had been hit by a plane, but the news didn't have all of the details yet. At first we thought it may have been a small personal plane that had flown off it's flight course and were sorry to hear of the accident. We had no idea of the real tragedy until a few minutes later when all of the radio stations started reporting on what happened. We were all stunned! Then the second plane hit and everyone in our office was paralyzed. After this we all knew nothing was going to get done that day. We are located near a Circuit City store and some of us went in to watch what was going on. As I stood in the store and saw the towers collaspe the reality of all of those people dying hit me and I couldn't control my pain for all of the lives lost. I stood there among dozens of others sobbing at the tragedy. Once the towers collasped, we called all of our appointments for the day to cancel them and went home to be with our families. As the day went on and the other planes crashed, we couldn't take our eyes off the television. Once we found out these were all terrorist attacks we were fearful for our family around the country. Who knew where they were going to strike next? Living in Richmond, we're only a few hours from Washington, D.C. and several other major cities that could be targeted for terrorism. My family is on the west coast and was dreadfully worried about our safety. I, however, was just as worried about them, as they live close to a major west coast city and about an hour from a nuclear power plant.
That day changed many of our lives forever. I have always been proud to be an American, but to see Americans pull together and support each other after this national tragedy made me even more so. I lived out of the country for a few years and took some abuse about being an American, but people knew not to go too far, because we Americans are a very proud people and aren't about to let anyone tread on our great country. This tragedy may have been a wake-up call that we may not be as indestructible as we thought we were. It has, however, shown that Americans love their country, each other, and what the United States stands for. Our true American spirit is more evident than ever! We mourn the loss of the people who died on September 11 and pray for the families who have suffered. There is no room for forgiveness for those that caused this tragedy. We have let everyone know that we are still the greatest country in the world and will not take this ordeal lying down. I am more proud to be an American than ever before and love this great country that we are blessed to live in.