story2477.xml

story2477.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was a 5th year senior at James Madison University on September 11, 2001. In preparation for student teaching, we all had to come back for a few weeks of classes before entering the classroom. I remember exactly where we were, exactly what we were doing...we were in Roop Hall, in SPED 402. The class started at 8 am, and lasted until 10:30. Every day we took a break at around the same time. That day, we took a break a little before 9 o'clock. There was one girl who always called her mother during our break. She went to call her mom while the rest of us went to get snacks and take restroom breaks. She ran into the room like she was on fire...she was in tears and yelled to us that a plane had flown into the WTC. Of course, we didn't believe her. How could something like that happen to us??? We are a strong and powerful nation!! Our SPED teacher let us out of class immediately, and I would swear that almost every education student was in the education library watching the coverage. Within a few minutes, we found out about the 2nd plane and the plane that had hit the Pentagon.

My heart almost stopped when I heard about the Pentagon. My aunt works for the Pentagon, and I felt panic and fear run through me. I cried for what felt like an eternity. It wasn't until a few hours later that I found out she was okay. We still had one more class to go to that day. That professor wasn't as nice as the other one. He still held class, and expected us to pay attention and still work well. Girls cried in the classroom, guys sat quietly. No one felt like being there. We wanted to be at home, or at least with friends watching the coverage.

Even after class I still had to go to work. I worked in the main dining hall on campus. I arrived to work with red, white, and blue ribbons on hand. We passed them out to all of the staff, and even gave them to some of the students as they came in. It was overwhelming to see the patriotism that hadn't been on our campus before. We held a candlelight vigil that night, and many students donated blood to the local hospital. So many students donated that we exhausted their supply of bags!!!

That was me on 9/11/01. It was an unforgettable day...I'll always remember where I was and who I was with. In fact, one of the guys in my class is teaching at the same school as me, he's in the next room!