story8299.xml

story8299.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-10-02

I got up the morning of 9-11 at 5:00 AM. I told my dad goodbye, as he was going to the LA Airport to leave for his business trip. I went to seminary and then went to school. I walked into first period and the girl next to me turned to me and said, "Oh man, did you hear about the plane that crashed?" and I said to her, "What plane?" and she told me how she watched a plane on the news crash into one of the twin towers. She told me they thought only 6 people died. I contemplated that for a moment and said to her, "If a plane crashed and only six people died, did the people on the plane live? I don't think that?s possible." She shrugged and said she didn't know. I wanted to go home and watch the news. I wanted to see if my dad was okay.
My first period teacher walked in and told us that both towers had crashed and that thousands were dead. I sat there. I couldn't think. It was not real; how could anything like this ever happen in the United Stated? At lunch with my friends, we swapped rumors that we had heard and our different frights. I was scared because I saw airplanes flying over the school and I was afraid they would come and kill us. I was also afraid for my dad.
It turned out that my dad was fine, but he wasn't able to get into the airport because they had shut it down. The news was constantly on in my house, but I didn't want to watch it because I knew it would scare me. On September 11, 2002, I watched a special on it, and yes, it scared me a lot. I heard about a lot of things, like people jumping out of buildings so they wouldn't get burned, but I couldn't believe it until I saw the footage of someone ending their life at my school's September 11 Memorial assembly. I am glad I was alive to witness this tragic event, but I am also sad. I feel very privileged to live in this great country and I love America. I hope everyone else does also.