story9432.xml

story9432.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-08-22

Around 8:30 A.M. I could hear my step-dad calling me and telling me to come downstairs. Was he crazy? Did he not know what time it was? I am not a morning person and am extremely grumpy until about 2 hours after I have woken up. I ignored him and went back to sleep.

Around 11:30, I heard him calling me again. The phone had been ringing non-stop, but I figured if it was important, that he would come to my room and force me to wake up. Which is exactly what he did. My step-dad came knocking on my door and told me to come downstairs right away. I told him I would be right down. I literally rolled out of bed and stumbled downstairs like a drunk person.

My eyes were still half closed. I went into the living room and said, in a very frustrated and annoyed tone of voice,"What?" He told me to look at the t.v. I looked and saw an image of building in smoke. I was outraged. I was outraged that he would wake me up to come downstairs to look at a burning building. I looked at him with dagger eyes and said, "Are you kidding me? You woke me up for this!" And he says, "Sylvia, the World Trade Centers were hit by airplanes." Keep in mind that I was still half asleep and I could not understand why this should matter to me. My step-dad realized this and repeated himself, "The World Trade Centers were hit by airplanes. They collapsed and thousands of people have died. The Pentagon was hit as well. (at this point I was starting to wake up). It was a terrorist attack." Once he said that, I froze.

I looked at the t.v again. Images of the plane hitting the second tower was being replayed over and over again. They showed people running from the debris. People covered in soot were shown. The most haunting image that I saw was a man jumping from the building. He was just sailing through the air. That was when I started to grasp how huge this was. My eyes began to tear over. This could not be happening? Who would do something like this? Why would anyone do this? Seeing images of people crying made me cry.

I cried for the people who lost their lives. I wondered how scared they must have felt and the thoughts that must've run through their minds. I began to sob when I heard replayed messages from victims who had called their families knowing that they were going to die. That brought a pain to me that I have never felt before. Although I did not know these people, I wept for them as if they had been part of my very own immediate family.

Later that day I went to work. I worked at a restaurant at the time, and it was almost completely empty. All of the employees were surrounded by the t.v. in the bar area. No one was speaking. American flags were soon seen EVERYWHERE. People were rallying together in downtown Sacramento and vigils were being held all over the place. You couldn't get away from the coverage no matter how hard you tried.

September 11th made me look at the world and at the human race in a completely different way. I had never known that there were people in this world with such hatred that they could commit such a heinous act. Of course I knew about the Holocaust and slavery and all of that stuff, but I had only read about those things. To actually be alive when something like this happens, brings about a different perspective. I looked at my life in a different way. I had never thought about how lucky, how privileged I was to be an American. I had taken so many things for granted, right down to my residence. Now, I am proud to be an American. Not that I intentionally wasn't before, but I had never thought about it because I didn't appreciate it.

My heart and my prayers go out to the families of the victims of 9/11. My love goes out to all Americans. We all suffered this tragedy, just some more than others.