story9921.xml

story9921.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-11

I had just moved to Florida about two weeks prior to the attacks to do the College Program with Walt Disney World. I still was a little hesitant about being away from home (which is in Wisconsin) and to awake to the terrorist attacks on the U.S. just made that feeling worse. My roomate and I were sleeping when her boyfriend called to tell us the news. We immediately turned on the TV and just sat there and stared as the second plane had hit the towers. Then it was the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania field. It just didn't seem like it was going to stop and it didn't. We got several phone calls from our bosses and other Disney personnel that Walt Disney World was going to close the parks. We were astounded because this was the second time in history that Disney shut down. We weren't sure what the cause of this was, but there were several rumors about Walt Disney being on the hit list. We were scared. I was scared. I had family in New York that worked right by the towers. I called home to tell them I was okay and to see if they had heard anything from my cousin. Not a word and I just started to imagine the worse. By this time the towers had fell and more and more tears came running down my cheeks. I was numb, but knew that since I worked in one of Disney's resorts I would have to go to work and deal with the thousand of people and their questions. What would I say to them? How do I help them cope and keep them busy so they aren't thinking about the US being under attack? It was a difficult time at work, but we all made it through. We turned to complete strangers to look for comfort and to have our who,what, why questions answered. However, those questions couldn't be answered. I remember going home after work and trying to cope with what happened. You would think it was a dream....a bad dream!