story374.xml

story374.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-04-09

On September 11 I was at my college, Illinois Wesleyan University. It was kinda ironic because I had just woken up to get ready for class, and I normally do not turn on the TV in the morning but for some reason I did. As soon as I turned it on, all I saw was a huge plane crashing into the side of the first building. I actually thought it was a movie that they were playing at first, but then when i switched the channel and realized that this was actually happening, I just stood there gawking. My stomach was just churning, then as soon as I saw the second plane hit I was just thinking to myself, you gotta be kidding me, how many more are out there. As soon as my roommate came in we both just started bawling at the thousands of people and their families that were watching this unfold. Eventually all of my friends were gathered together in a room just watching all the news and the new headlines, trying to find out who was the head of all this and if there were any more planes out there. It was an unusual silence that swept the room and you could see the tears and worries in everyone's eyes. Some of my friends had parents or relatives that worked there, and they were just waiting by the phone to hear from them. This day was one of the saddest and most horrible moments I have ever had to deal with. There were actually students that were working there as well, however we found out later on that day that they were not there when it occurred. That day if we did have any classes, which I personnally only had one, all we did was watch the TV so that we were kept updated. All the teachers knew that this was a very fragile time, not only for themselves but for us as students. I have never seen our campus so bare and so gloomy. Just watching the buildings fall and the people, it was all just so overwhelming, I would talk to the guys and they all just said how they wish we could just bomb all of them, how they would go to war and fight themselves. It became all too realistic in the past 24 hours. I will never forget that day, it is all to vivid to me, and that following week as well. We were just trying to raise money, people writing about peace all over the school, and then at the end of the week we had a huge school gathering where we met on the quad and had our president speak as well as some students, then at the end we all just stood in silence praying for all the families and the people that were still stuck in the buildings. I'm sorry that my story is so long, but it is hard to write down exactly what you want to say. The event and all the emotions that surrounded it are deeper then words.