nmah6387.xml

nmah6387.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-12-23

I lived in Burke, Virginia at the time and was in my religion class at George Mason University. It was my second class of the day, the attacks actually happened as I was getting coffee with my friend. I walked into my Old Testament studies and everyone was talking about some plane crashing in the WTC. I was thinking that it could not possibly have been sucked into the building so I asked if anyone was really hurt. I also heard rumors that the National Mall was on fire and that the plane by the Pentagon landed in a side building. As you can see it was all speculation at this point since most of us were either on our way to class and it was all happening then or we had been in class earlier that day. My professor came in and said that we were going to have class since we can't do anything about it. He let us leave our phones on and during class one girl ran out crying because she couldn't get a hold of her mother who works in the Pentagon. Another student got a call during class mentioning the plane crash in Pennsylvania. After class I drove home and was shocked at the magnitude as I listened to the radio and then tuned in to Fox News Channel for the rest of the day. My Dad had to go to work at St. Elizabeth's and it took him about 4 hours to get to work when we live 25 min from the city.

My life has changed. That event really got me into the news. I watch Fox News Channel all the time and am really up on current events. It hit close to home as I lived in Northern Virginia. Like most people we hung flags and put decals on our car but for me it wasn't a fad but has remained a constant pride. I am an avid country music fan and songs like Toby Keith's Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue and Daryl Woorly's Have you Forgotten have been my mantra. I now live in Southern California and I can see the difference between the east/west coast rememberance of the event.

I think September 11 should be remembered as a turning point in our history. I also think when students learn about this event it should be mentioned the strength and courage George W. Bush had to not pull back and fight the war on terror.

I flew one and we continue to do so. My car still has a flag decal on it.