nmah5660.xml

nmah5660.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-08

I was a senior in college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, an IS major. My classes started about 10:30am but I decided the night before to get up early to hang out with my friends before class. I forgot what exact time I woke up but it was after the first tower was hit but before the second. My TV is my alarm it automatically turns on so I wake up to that. I was half asleep so I was hearing bits and pieces like terrorist, airplane, WTC so I immediately woke up. I just sat in bed staring in shock. I remember the HBO movie about the first world trade center bombing and how in the last scene of the movie the terrorist said, next time we will take them both down. That scene from the movie kept playing in my head. Then the second plane came, I could not believe I was seeing an airplane crash into the WTC! I was screaming no no no and once it hit I just started crying. I ran upstairs and my grandpa was in Chicago on a job and grandma was in the kitchen. We were just shocked and watching tv. She didn't want me to go to school but for once I wanted to go really bad, I had to be with people. Grandma drove me to school and at that time nobody knew where the president was, that was the scariest feeling ever! Plus there were rumors of more planes and nothing was clear yet. I got to school and there were still classes because it was still early but in class we talked about what happened. I just started crying again because I have friends that live in NY and had nooo idea if they were safe or not. Someone else stated how a girl in her class got a call on her cell from her mom, her mom told her her aunt was in the WTC and didn't get out.
After that class I skipped my next one and went to the Union. The university was awesome, they put TV's in every hallway of the union and 6 in the big part all tuned into different stations. I wish I would have had my camera to take pictures of the other students reactions, I know what a thought hey? But remember a student union is never dead quiet like it was that day. By that time fliers were going around school saying the university was shutting down for the rest of the day. That was about noon. I went home and didn't know what to do. Our radio stations didn't play any music just the news. The rest of the day was a complete blur but that morning I will never forget. It's funny, earlier that year the movie Pearl Harbor came out and I loved the movie. I asked my grandma what it was like to live through that, I could not imagine. Who knew a few months later I'd live through my generations Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately now I know.

It has effected me because I was an International Studies major. Terrorism was more a hypothetical we studied in class, it was something that happened in other countries so we could not really understand the emotion. Class was in session for only a week and our poly sci class was discussing how pres. Bush's administration would be defined. Also my area of study was the Middle East and I had friends who were Muslim. I was trying to learn all I could and to teach my fam that they were not the stereotypes. Sept 11th really gave me a reality check that we are not safe and that politics and terrorism is real.

All of the people that died

Yes, I come from a patriotic family. Some of my family members were in the military; Marines, Army, and Airforce. I think people should always fly their flag. America is not perfect, no country is, but its our country and should stand behind it.