story11364.xml

story11364.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2005-04-05

I was in 8th grade on September 11th, 2001. I had just walked out of the choir room with Jennifer from helping out durring our studyhall and I was about to go to Science with Miss Oxley third period. Normally when I walked into the room, saying as how I was the first one there, we would engage in conversation about the day before once school was over and so on. On September 11th, 2001, I walked into my Science room and started to say hi to my teacher when she snapped back with a "Shh! Be quiet!" I asked her what was going on and then I looked up at the television and saw what was so intriguing. I couldn't believe that it was happening and I fell into my seat as my friend Hope walked into class trying to start a conversation. She soon asked me what was wrong when she saw the tears falling down my face even though I wasn't making a sound. See, normally when something like this happens, I would be in shock for a moment and then just be sad for the families that were losing members as we watched, but this hit me just as if I was in the building myself. My mom was supposed to be flying to New York that day, and I hadn't heard from her in a few days so I didn't know her plans. All through third and fourth period the teachers had the televisions on and we were watching the news for any updates that we could get. Fifth period rolls around and Mr. Cox, the principal, comes of the PA system and announces that the teachers were to turn off the televisions and continue with the normal lesson plans. Some teachers listened, and others kept the televisions on as they tried to teach, but failed. I remeber thinking at one moment that it was all my fault, because I had missed school the day before and every other time I had missed school, we were informed about something bad happening the next day. I got home from school around 3:15 like everyother day, except for once, no one was in my house and I was scared to death when I found this out. I called my dad at work, no answer. I tried calling my grandmother, who lives 1 hour outside of Manhattan, no answer. And everyone else I tried calling...no answer. I was sitting on my couch crying and trying to focus on my television to see the news and updates. I stayed up that whole night watching the news and the collapse of the buildings and the smoke and everything involved. I went to school the next morning and I don't remember a single thing from that day during school except thinking about how much I wish I was at home watching the news and holding my family close to me. On September 13, 2001, I got word from my uncle that my mom had flown out to New York a couple days early, which was why I hadn't talked to her, and that she was safe along with everyone else in my family in New York. I stayed up for 3, possibly even 4, days straight watching the news.

I took a trip to New York to visit my family on September 16th, 2003. We went to Ground Zero and took pictures of the debri, the cross, and everything that they have up in rememberance of the WTCs. We also took my nephew, who at the time was 2 and a half, and we also visited Liberty Island, which is also gaurded now.

The feelings and the memories of September 11th, 2001, will never leave my mind. If I dug deep enough, I am sure I would be able to tell you what perfume my bestfriend was wearing that day. The 9/11 tragedy is one that will continue to live on through out many generations because it hit all of us Americans close to home and it made us come together, which is/was one thing we were having trouble with. I don't know where everyone in the world was but if you ask me where I was and what I was doing, I promise to you that I can recite my day to you because this was a major impact in my life that helped change the way I look at things to this day.

Jessica