story952.xml

story952.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-31

I remember getting dressed for work the morning of September 11th. I was staying at my sister?s apartment for a short period of time. My sister was listening to the radio as she was showering. I knocked on the bathroom door to say goodbye. My sister said, ?They just said over the radio that a plane hit the World Trade Center.? ?That?s strange," I thought. We listened for a few minutes. The first reports indicated that it was a small plane, so we just figured it was some freak accident. ?I?m going to turn on the TV,? I told my sister. I turned on the TV and watched as the second plane hit. That moment is forever frozen in my consciousness. ?Oh my God,? I yelled to my sister. ?Another plane just hit.? I didn?t know what was happening and I didn?t know what to do. I remember the vague background noise of Katie Couric?s voice on the television. I said to my sister, ?I?m going to go in to the office.?

I logged on to the Internet as soon as I got to my desk. Reports were flying all over. One of my good friends came up to the desk, stared at me, and said, ?What is going on???? We rushed down to a conference room and where a group of our colleagues where gathered around a TV. We all sat in silence and watched what was happening. As soon as the buildings started collapsing, people started crying. People were hysterical over concern for loved ones in New York. We realized some people from our company were in D.C. on business. The president of our company told everyone to go home. My friend and I waited for the el by our office. It was 10:30 am, and normally at the time on a workday, the el has very few people on it. Instead, this day we had to wait for five packed trains to go by before we could even get on one. The city was literally clearing out.

I met my sister at her apartment and we sat numb, in front of the TV, for eight hours. Our hearts were breaking, along with everyone else?s. The devastating loss was unimaginable and overwhelming. We couldn?t eat anything and I couldn?t sleep that night. All I kept thinking was, ?Is this over? What are we going to wake up to tomorrow morning??

In the days and weeks that followed, I was overwhelmed again ? this time, by the limitless generosity of the human spirit. I walked around in a daze, deeply appreciative of my own life and those of my family and friends.