story762.xml

story762.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-06-07

It started out like any other day on September 11, 2001. I got up early and went off to school and into my first period class. Then I went on with my schedule and went off to my other classes, and it wasn?t until my fourth period class that I started to hear about what was happening in New York City, and by that time the two planes had already hit the World Trade Center and another at the Pentagon. As soon as the terrible news got around school, all the classes were pretty much canceled and everybody was just watching the news in awe. I still remember walking into my fourth period class and noticing that this building was on fire and smoke was just pouring out of it. I didn?t even really understand and realize what was happening at first, I was just in total shock and disbelief. After watching the news a little more and talking to the people around me, I began to realize that these weren?t just any buildings; they were the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As soon as I realized this, various emotions just swept over me. I realized that thousands of people were being killed and millions more were being affected by those losses. I think the thing that bothered me, was the fact that this horrible tragedy that I was witnessing was intentional. It?s just so hard to believe that someone could actually cause something like this and live their life knowing that they made millions of people suffer. Just thinking about that made so much anger build up inside of me. I just wanted to close my eyes and wake up and have it all be a dream. The sad thing was that it wasn?t a dream, it was really happening. Watching the after effects of the blasts was probably one of the most difficult experience that I have had to witness so far in my life. I don?t think I will ever be able to get all those horrible images out of my mind. Just having to watch all those people having no better way out of life than by plunging off the towers to their death was horrible. Then you had all the people on the ground who had to witness all those deaths and think that one of those people could be their loved one or someone else?s loved one. It?s unbearable to even think about all of the thousands of people who are suffering because their loved ones are no longer with them, and knowing that they died in the most unpeaceful way has to make the whole experience even more unbearable. This whole tragedy brought me so much anger and pain. I wasn?t even at the towers when the planes hit, I couldn?t even imagine how horrible it must have been for the people who were right their and witnessed the whole thing right before their eyes. My heart really goes out to all the people who died and suffered in this horrible tragedy and I will always look back on this event in history, and just hope and pray that something like this will never happen again.