nmah5343.xml

nmah5343.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-20

I was a college student in the Midwest living in a boarding house just outside campus grounds. Before departing for the first class of the day, I logged onto the web to check my e-mail. I noticed on my homepage what looked like a movie preview. The next moment, I realized that it was supposedly a news article but I thought that the website may have been hacked. I tried to log onto a major news website but their server was busy. I started to feel anxious. My class would have started in ten minutes so I began to walk to class without being 100% sure if the terrorism was real.

When I arrived at the academic building, I saw large crowds around television monitors. Then it was obvious. I only knew that planes were steered into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The class, a requirement for a Mechanical Engineering degree, was called "Intermediate Strength of Materials". I learned that one tower collapsed when the professor said that burning jet fuel was the reason for the collapse of the tower. A student corrected the professor by informing him (and me) that both towers collapsed.

After class concluded I walked to another building where I knew larger television sets would provide clearer views of the day's events. The image of the second tower being hit brought out emotions not felt since the space shuttle disaster. It also brought out other emotions, like disgust.