story862.xml

story862.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-07-06

The morning of September 11th, I was attending a 9:30 class at Northern Virginia Community College. When the class started, one of my classmates walked in and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. By the end of the class, another student walked in to inform us that a plane had hit the Pentagon in Arlington.
As I walked back to my car in tears, the world was still and eerily quiet -- it was a beautiful day, the air was cool, and the sky cloudless and blue. I didn't know what to do, or what to think. There were so many questions that couldn't be answered.
The world was a blur of people, there were looks of confusion and anger, and so many tears. There were people in their cars with their radios turned up trying to make some sense of the news. I couldn't. I pinched my arm to see if I were dreaming.
My aunt called me when I got home, wanting to know if my family was all right. "Why is there so much evil in the world?" she asked me, sobbing. "How can there be so much hate?" When my boyfriend came over, we watched the TV, disbelieving. All I could ask him through my tears was, "God, what is going on?" "I don't know", he said softly as the images of the World Trade Center flashed on the screen, "Baby, I don't know".