story726.xml

story726.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-06-06

The day started like any other ordinary day. I woke up around 5:30 in the morning and did all my usual things. I ate breakfast, took a shower and got dressed. I rode on my bus. I was really happy because after school I was going to a friend's house. As the bus stopped outside the school everyone stood up. When I got off the bus one of my friends came up to me. We walked to our lockers and I opened my locker door. I reached in and grabbed my things for my first and second period classes.
I walked into my first period class early as usual. My first period class is Spanish. We had the second part of a two-part test. It was a composition. After Spanish, I walked up to the second floor to my Global Studies class. We took notes and talked all period. In the last twenty minutes of class my teacher received a phone call. She hung up the phone and turned on the television.
What I saw after that shocked me. We saw one of the twin towers in New York City. It was smoking heavily because a plane had crashed into it. Our class watched in shock for about three minutes and then in the background behind the second tower we could see a low flying plane. At that instant it flew right into the second tower. By that time we knew it wasn't an accident.
The bell rang and the class got up and walked out. I walked downstairs to my third period gym class. When I got to the gym, the television was on and people were watching the live coverage of the World Trade Center accidents. During gym all I could think about was the people in New York City. After gym we changed back into are regular clothes. When I walked back into the gym, the television was still on. This time the broadcasters weren't talking about New York City.
They were talking about another plane that had just crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Now I knew that something was terribly wrong. I walked back to my locker and grabbed my books for my fourth and fifth period classes. My fourth period class is Studio Art. In Studio Art we all watched the television also. Just before the bell rang they were talking about the World Trade Center towers. Just as the bell rang in that class the first tower fell to the ground.
My fifth period math class that day went really slow. After fifth period I had sixth period lunch. Sometime before lunch and after fifth period the second tower had collapsed and that was the talk of lunch. My friends and I talked about who we thought was behind the attack. Most of it said it was Germany and Japan trying to get revenge on America for losing World War 2. One of my friends at my table guessed it was the Taliban.
When lunch was over I went to guided study. It was boring because I didn't have any work (neither did anyone else) and the teacher didn't turn on the television. After that I went to my eighth period Earth Science class. We didn't do a thing. All we did was watch a press conference with the leader of the Osama Bin Laden. I didn't understand a word that he said but it sounded like he wasn't being truthful. After that period I went to English. The day of school was over and I was on my way home.
In the following weeks, the United States found out that Osama Bin Laden was indeed a liar. We started a war. A war in which President Bush said was a war on terrorism. Although we have not found Bin Laden yet I hope someday we do and he will get what he deserves. This whole experience impacted me in a few ways. One of my uncles worked right down the street from the World Trade Center. He had to quit working for almost a month. He now is working again but he said he may never be the same again because he was so close when this all happened.