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#2009 | Tuesday, September 10th 2002
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I am from Australia so I didn't find out about the attacks until the next morning. I then went to school and everyone was talking about it. One of my classmates had a radio and heaps of kids were listening. After school I went home and spent the entire afternoon watching the TV, and seeing footage and interviews and stuff.
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Katie | 16 | Australia
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#1988 | Tuesday, September 10th 2002
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What can I say about that day. I was in 2nd period 9th grade Health class. I remember our principal getting on the school microphone and telling everyone to turn on their tv's, something happened that the us goverment thought was a terrist action. So our health teacher turns on the tv, and he didn't turn the sound on because he was on the phone talking about fishing or something. At first we thought that it was just bombed, but then when he actually turned the volume on, we realized that a plane had hit the first tower. We actually saw the 2nd one hit. I was,of course, freaking out because i scare very easily. When iwas in Spanish 1, we saw the first tower collapse. By then we had already heard about the pentagon, and i realized that I had a cousin that worked there. My friend Cody's uncle also worked there so we talked about that. They turned off the broadcast, but our Spanish teacher turned on the radio, and we sorta heard something about a plane in Pennsylvania. When i was leaving Spanish class, my best friend Liz came up to me and she said THey are just getting closer and closer to West Virginia. And i realized oh wow, the area i live in is surrounded by power plants. Another comforting idea. I remember in 4th period, desktop publishing, thinking, I may not be allowed to do this, I don't really know, But I'm going to do it anyway. And with that I bowwed my head and prayed.
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Sarai | 16 | West Virginia
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#1981 | Tuesday, September 10th 2002
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on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was a high school sophomore. I wore size 16 jeans. I hated living in Texas and having to ride the bus, and looked toward my sixteenth birthday with equal parts excitement and dread. I had a best friend. My relationship with my mom was strained to say the least. I was somewhat happy. I sort of sensed that I might make it to my sixteenth birthday without being kissed, but was in denial about it. I liked two boys: Gabriel and Josh. I didn't know that Josh was gay. I'd been to New York City once when I was eight years old, had stood on Liberty Island, and had seen the World Trade Center towers overlooking the harbor. The 2001 VMAs had just aired the week before, and I was awaiting the new *NSYNC video for "Gone".
The morning of September 11th, I got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went to the bus stop. On the bus, I turned on my CD player and was listening to Madonna's "Human Nature". When I got to school I sat on one of the benches downstairs waiting for the bell to ring. A guy I had never seen before walked by and waved at me. I found it odd, but felt good that someone noticed me. I wrote in my journal. I thought about Gabriel.
The bell rang and I went to biology. I didn't pay attention in the class at all. When the bell rang again at 9:05, I walked upstairs and to the hall where my dance class was.
I got to the dance room and went to change into my dance clothes: black t-shirt and black sweatpants. I was walking back to the classroom from the locker room when a girl named Anita came in, saying something like, "Someone blew up the White House, y'all!" I didn't know what she was talking about. She was ranting about some planes and things, and I was baffled... and a little leery.
I went into the dance room, and noticed that Josh wasn't there, and a few of the other senior girls--Stephanie and Bumni--weren't there. They were in Mrs. Barnett's office, watching TV. I didn't think too much of it until much later. Mrs. Barnett told us to practice for our dance skills test--we'd learned a combination and would perform it in front of the class.
I was nervous as I practiced. I thought about what Anita had said about the White House being bombed and the planes. For some reason, I kept thinking about the movie Independence Day when those alien ships blew up New York, LA, and DC.
Around 9:40, Mrs. Barnett walked out of her office, and told us to all get changed into our regular clothes--quickly. I immediately tensed up and knew something was very wrong. Mrs. Barnett was one of those teachers who ALWAYS made you work until the last minute and we weren't to get changed for ANYTHING. This was big. All of us got changed quickly and we ran back into the room.
As soon as we all got situated, Mrs. Barnett told us: around seven that morning in New York, a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. At first, everyone thought it was an accident--albeit a strange one, but an accident nonetheless. Then about an hour later, another plane hit the other tower. Sometime later in Washington DC, a plane hit the side of the Pentagon. She told us that all airports were holding flights, but there was still a plane that was missing from the radar. She told us that no one knew what was going on, why all the planes were crashing, but that they wanted to evacuate major cities or something like that. We all had questions. Anita's mom worked at the airport and she wanted to call her. And I thought of my dad, who works in a tall office building, and worried about him.
Mrs. Barnett told us that we were living through history. She told us that she remembered when the Challenger blew up. She told us that this was something we'd always remember--something so monumental. All I could do was worry. Would whoever did this find another way to go across the country, wrecking havoc on major cities? Would Dad be okay? I wanted to go home.
I was in a daze as we finally left dance and I went to geometry. My mind was in a jumble--I wondered what it was like for a high school kid in 1941 to have to go to school on December 8--the Monday after Pearl Harbor got bombed. I thought more about Independence Day, even though there were no aliens and it seemed TOTALLY illogical for me to think about extraterrestrials. And I thought about my online friends who lived in and New York and DC--and everyone I knew in North Carolina, my home state. Were they okay?
A TV was on in a room across the hall from my new geometry class. I couldn't focus on the lesson Ms. Barnes had given us. I pulled out my journal and began to write furiously everything I'd learned in the last hour. At 10:49 I wrote, "I'm in geomerty now, TRYING to focus. Across the hall, a TV's on, and everyone is watching. And I feel as if I have been plunked down into a movie that is a mixture of Independence Day and Deep Impact, or in one of those fan fics where World War III is starting and one of the guys [*NSYNC] get drafted. (I can NOT belive I just made an allusion to *NSYNC fan fiction.)"
Later on that period I continued. "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I am SCARED. This is the kind of thing that starts wars... My stomach is all knotted up and I am jittery beyond belief."
I went to lunch and managed to eat my usual two slices of pepperoni pizza. I talked to my friend Natalie about what was going on, and we were both equally freaked out.
After lunch, I went to webmastering. I was dying to find out new developments, so as soon as I could, I logged online and went to cnn.com. I was shaking the entire time as I read every detail they had chronicled on the site, and as Gabriel showed people the video of the planes hitting the Twin Towers. I was still in disbelief. Who would do such a thing?
When I got home, I walked into my parent's bedroom to find my mom there. The TV was on one of the news channels, and she turned and said to me, "It's a sad day in America." I thought about my relatives in New York for the first time and got scared. I went to the den and turned on the PC, needing to check in with my East Coast friends. I turned on the TV to catch up on the news I had missed while I was at school.
I talked to people. I IMed people and visited messageboards. I tried to say something here in my LiveJournal, but I couldn't. The worst moment of the day for me was when my brother, then thirteen, came home at 4:15, walked in my mom's room and said to her, very seriously, "Mommy, why didn't you come and pick us up?"
Later, about five o' clock, my mom went to Kentucky Fried Chicken to buy us dinner--popcorn chicken. I decided to stay home in case my dad called. That was the biggest mistake I'd made all day. With no planes flying overhead and next to no one being out, the neighborhood was eerily quiet. I was scared but SO relieved when my dad came home.
Mom had to work that night. I hated saying goodbye to her. I was so scared. The TV had been on the news all day. I got to eat in the den, a rarity in my house. When I went to bed at 10 o' clock, I realized I hadn't done any homework or ironed my clothes for school the next day. I left the TV on because I was too scared to have just the radio on.
On Wednesday, Septemeber 11, 2002, I will be a junior in high school. I will wear size 18 jeans. I will still hate being in Texas and having to ride the bus. I will look toward my seventeenth birthday with total fear. I will be, for the first time in three years, best friendless. I know I will face my seventeeth birthday as a love virgin. I will have a better relationship with my mother, who I have grown to love and appreciate in so many ways now. I know that Josh was gay and has graduated, and that Gabriel was a cradle-robber. I will never forget that one time I saw the Twin Towers from Liberty Island and I still feel my heart twinge when I see the image of them. I know that the 2002 VMAs sucked, and I will wait for Justin Timberlake's solo album to come out.
I will go to school and take part of whatever commemorative program we will have. I will take pictures of this day, and hopefully they will be in the school yearbook. I will wear my USA t-shirt, and I will pray nothing will happen, that the terrorists will leave us be on this day. I will take pictures of American flags for my communications graphics project, and I will hang my family's flag out.
I will feel empty. I will feel empty for everything I and my country lost in the past year. And maybe God or whoever is bigger than I am in this universe will give me the strength to find hope that can fill me.
I will be proud to be American. Yes, this country has had its ugly side. But I will be glad I can be free to do as I please, and I will be glad I live in a country where I can share what I was doing a year ago with so many people.
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Candice | 16 | Texas
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#1980 | Tuesday, September 10th 2002
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On September 11th I was at school we didn't find out about the Twin Towers until the first one had actually fallen. Immiediately our teachers turned our TVs to CNN and we sat there watching in horror... silent, motionless, scared to breath. I have loved ones who were deeply affected by the tragedies, but I will never forget how our nation came together with much love and respect for one another. To all of the people who lost loved ones and to all of the survivors I feel your pain and I send you my love. Lets work to never let them forget the day they messed with the US of A!
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Kim | 16 | Texas
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#1977 | Tuesday, September 10th 2002
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I realize that no one is going to believe this (I still have trouble believing myself) but anyway. I went to bed on Monday, September 10. I dreamed that night that I was riding on an airplane, and we crashed, but I woke up before I died.
Then, a handful of months later, I dreamed that I was on an airplane again, we had severe engine problems, but we managed to land in the terminal. That next day, the shoe bomb near-tragedy occured.
Finally, in April of last year, I dreamed that I attended a funeral. That next day I found out that one of classmates and good friends had died.
I have had no similar dreams since. Take it for what you want, but it is true.
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Neil | 16 | Illinois
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