story6500.xml

story6500.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I remember that the bell had rung for all of the students to switch classes. As I was walking down the hall on my way to my American Government class, my younger brother pulled me aside and told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I didn't believe him and told him not to listen to all the things he hears. Then I walked into my Government class just in time to see the second plane hit the Tower. I went numb. I looked around the room and knew that this was no accident. Two of my girlfriends screamed and my teacher just looked in horror at the television. I didn't even realize that I was crying until one of my friends handed me a tissue and a shoulder. All of us just sat there watching the events unfold right in frone of us. When the towers collapsed, I put my head on my desk and sobbed. Thousands of people were gone in an instant. The rest of the school day was terrible. People were crying, teachers were crying. No one knew what to do. Tons of kids went home early. We were all numb. That afternoon, I got home and my parents were watching the news. All of the stations kept replaying the second plane tear into the second tower. That image is seaed into my memory. I eventually had to go to my room just to get away from everything. It was too overwhelming. Why did these people do such a thing? Why did they hate us so much. Those were the questions I asked over the course of the coming months. They were questions that never fully got answered. In May I visited Ground Zero. It was a healing experience. Though I knew none of the people that died personally, I felt that I did. Standing on that spot, I cried and signed the wall, as had thousands of others before me. I knew then and there that this country will not fail. No one can take us down. We are truly the UNITED States of America.
Jessica Rohdenburg
Milford, OH