nmah5564.xml

nmah5564.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-07-09

I lived in Brooklyn NY at the time. I left my apartment, which was in Bensonhurst, at, I am going to say, a little after 8am on the morning on 09/11/01. I had a conference at The NYPL Donnell location which is located on W53rd Street at 9:30am. My train - the N train - passed under the World Trade Center, stopping at Cortlandt Street. That morning the train stopped at Cortlandt Street at usual, except we got delayed at the station. People were getting annoyed and they got off the train to get another train so they weren't late to work. Meanwhile people who were getting on the train were talking in excited tones - I knew something was going on but I couldn't quite make out what they were talking about. Then a girl got on and she sat next to me. She was rubbing her hands through her hair and she asked me, "is there anything in my hair" and I said, "no, what's the matter?" (I normally wouldn't inquire like that, but it seemed like she was distressed about something). She told me there was a fire in the World Trade Center and there was paper everywhere, to which I replied - "That's not good," which is like the understatement of the year, but I had figured it was like a garbage can fire or something small.
In retrospect, I wonder what happened to the people who got off my train.
So the train finally took off from Cortlandt Street. I got off at 49th Street/7th Avenue. Everyone was looking down the street toward downtown, toward the World Trade Center, and talking about terrorism and smoke. I was like, uhhh what's going on??? I looked, but I probably wasn't wearing my glasses and I couldn't see any smoke. So, at this point I knew there was a fire in the World Trade Center and people were talking about terrorism. I took out my cell phone to call my sister to see if she knew anything, but my phone wouldn't work. I thought it was because I had dropped it that morning. I figured I would go to my conference and try to call her later on during the break. Of course, the conference never happened....
I got there and I asked some people in the elevator if they knew anything about a fire at the World Trade Center, and nobody really knew anything. It wasn't until I got to the conference room that I found out what had happened - two planes hit the World Trade Center and another plane hit the Pentagon in DC. At that time people were saying all sorts of crazy things like there were 5 more planes in the air and the White House was hit, etc. The conference actually went on as scheduled for about an hour when someone came in and told us the World Trade Center had collapsed and we could leave. I was in a daze as I walked out of the conference room and went down in the elevator to street level. I tried calling my family on my cell phone, which wasn't working, and on a payphone at the library, but that wasn't working either. Finally, someone let me use a landline and I got through to my mother who told me everything was fine, I was going to be OK. Honestly, I thought I was going to die, I was really ready to.
After hanging around the library for a while, trying to figure out how to get home, these girls came up to me and told me I could walk to the Bronx with them. So that is what I did. It was so surreal - all these people walking, talking about what was going on.....
So we got to the Bronx and I went to the house of one of the girls. Her and her boyfriend drove me home later that evening - it took over 2 hours to get me back to Brooklyn.

I don't think I have the ability to convey how I felt on 09/11/01 in writing, it was just an unbelievable surreal experience.

It has probably changed in ways that aren't...noticeable. I know I am more aware now, I am not as naive as I used to be in thinking that nothing bad will ever happen. But there are ways I have changed that I probably won't notice for years to come.

Everything...
it was a horrible horrible experience that I know I will never forget and neither should anyone else.
America lost her innocence that day.

I hung a picture of Bin Laden that said "Wanted Dead or Alive" in the window of my apartment. I also wore flag pins. And I attended a candle light vigil in New Jersey which was very sad.