story43.xml

story43.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-02-05

As I was driving back from the ATM like I usually do on
Tuesdays, to pick up my rent money for the week I had no
idea that the life I had known and become comfortable
in all of my 22 years would change drastically over the next
few months.

When I drive I usually listen to tapes or CD's in the car but
for some reason I thought to turn on the radio. DC101, the
pop rock station around here usually has an annoyingly interesting
morning show thats sometimes fun to listen to. When I turned on
the radio, and by now it was around 10:00 or so, things had changed.
The news came pouring in, "one tower of the World Trade Center is
gone after being hit by an airplane," Radio personalities that usually pride
themselves on being funny or crazy had suddenly become very very serious.
I quickly flipped around. There were reports that The Washington
Monument may have been hit, along with the Pentagon. This is when I
began to worry. I live only 20 miles from D.C., and that's less than a
three minute flight by plane.

As I got home I turned on the television only to be inundated with images of
disaster in New York City. Fire and explosions would occupy my thoughts for
weeks following this tragic event. I immediately called home, to the
mountains of North Carolina. By some chance my call got through. Most phone
lines were busy and no one was able to call anyone, including and especially
cell phones. I was talking to my father shortly thereafter about the
ramifications of such an event while we both watched the second tower crumble to
the ground. I could not believe my eyes. Something that has always stood
in incredible majisty of all its own, somewhere I had visited only a matter of months
before was completely erased from existence. As my father and i watched on in horror and
wonder he said "Think of all of the people trapped in there, the firemen who
rushed in to save them, they are all lost." The human aspect of such an event must not
be forgotten in the power of seeing it.

Then came the rumors, "There was a car bomb outside the State Department,
The Mall was on fire," and so on. I did not go to school that day. George Washington
University was all too close to the heart of the incident, but I feared for my
friends who lived there on campus and could not leave.

I then quickly went through a mad search to find all of my family, most of
which work around DC. I can only image what DC commuter trafic must have been like
For an area infamous for it, this mad rush must have been unlike anything anyone has ever seen.
My cousins, whom which I now live, made it home later that afternoon, and rushed around
to find their children, pick them up from daycare and the like. Their mother whom I spent
the majority of the day conversing with kept on saying in a very worried tone that
"I'm just not sure I want all of my family in one place right now,"
as if the worst that could possibly happen, could possibly happen. I heard that my uncle who
works in the Smithsonian had indeed left and was returning home as fast as possible. I contacted
my other cousins who worked in Springfield, and they were shocked but alright. I later discovered
that one of my cousins was scheduled to give some sort of talk at the Pentagon later that
evening, but thankfully she had not yet gone out there. Then I learned that
my aunt and uncle had gone to New York City for the weekend. I had no idea.
Out of all the weekends to see a baseball game... but thankfully they were uneffected by the
tragedy. With everyone accounted for I was much relieved.

Weeks later I fell into the same patriotic routine as the rest of the nation,
driving with an American Flag on my car and spending hours glued to the television.
It was a couple of months later before I could bring my self to drive out to the Penntagon, only
a short 15 minute drive, to see for myself the devastation. When you see it you realize just how
real it is. Television does not do it justice. No sight has thus far effected me as much in spirit
and mind as the one that laid before my eyes that day.

Thankfully no one in my family was hurt by the terrorism, I was lucky, and I give thanks every
night for this.