story2352.xml

story2352.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was 13 and in 9th grade when this happened. I'm now 14 and in 10th grade. When the first plane hit, I was in 1st period, computers. I never thought something like this happened. I found out in 5th period, physics first. The school, FTCHS, brought almost the whole floor into the lab so we could listen to the names being called to go home. I still didn't know what was going on. Finally one of the teachers told us. For some reason, I always thought the WTC towers were in Chicago...don't ask. My name was finally called, and my brother's friend's mom picked me up. The streets were crowded with cars while she took her 3 sons, my brother and I to her house. From there, we tried to get in touch with my mom, but she already left. When she picked me up, it was about 20 minutes later. She told me she went to my school first because she didn't think anyone would pick me up. When she saw my brother's friend's mom picked me up, she came over and took us home. It took us over an hour to get home. There was so much traffic! I never thought a 20 minute ride could be an hour. My mom watched the news. I couldn't go on the Internet and talk to people from school. I remember reading 'Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4' or something along those lines. I remember my dad calling, saying he had to work later, fixing trucks or something like that. He didn't come home until 8:00 that night. I was pretty scared. Listening to the radio was hard, since all my favorite radio stations were talking about the attacks. I finally found out that 'Radio Disney' was not talking about that, and listened to that. It was scary, even though I knew no one who were in any of the attacks. I didn't go to school the next day: we were given off. I went to my old school, and all the classes were talking about this. In Kindergarten, where I usually help, they were praying for the victims. The rest of the school went to Mass, and also prayed for everyone. I couldn't go since I was watching Kindergarten. I know it was great though, from my brother. Later that month, the school children and teachers threw red, white and blue balloons up in the air. The local firehouse was there. I saw pictures. This year their doing the same thing. I wish I could go, but I have school.