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#2236 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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Just a few days before 9/11, my friends and I were attacked in our car, coming home from a restaurant. The attackers were looking for someone to torment (maybe an initiation of some sort). They threw cement bricks through our windshield. We were scared to death, but only had scratches. I lived through that violent experience, and was thousands of miles from NYC, DC, and Pennsylvania on 9/11, yet the September 11th attacks scared me more. I grieve for the victims' families. A year later it's still too much to bear.
The morning of 9/11 we were in shock over the 2 planes hitting the WTC. When the Pentagon was hit, I called my boyfriend who was at work and to this day, I can't believe I uttered the words, "they hit the Pentagon." I didn't know anything about a "they"! I just knew, like everyone else, that something terrible was happening. Coming from a military family, I envisioned the scene in the Pentagon; our country's leaders taught to react quickly and under pressure, but what shock they must have been in. My Mom sometimes works at the Pentagon, and I called to make sure this wasn't one of those days. She waited anxiously until late that night to hear from her best friend, who was not injured, but her office destroyed. In March of 2002 we visited DC and she gave my boyfriend and I a private tour of the Pentagon late on a Sunday night. There were so many messages from school children posted on the walls; it was heart-breaking. But, we never felt so proud.
The US may not always do everything justly in terms of foreign affairs, but I believe that we really do try to make this a better world. I get sick watching clips of our "enemies" rejoicing over these attacks. We would never respond that way to the loss of life.
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Amy | 30 | Washington
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#2176 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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September 11, 2001 was a day that I will never forget. I brought my two children to school and began the drive to work. I noticed that my gas tank was almost empty but I was running late and knew that I could easily fill up after work that night. I was employed as a bank teller and began work that day at 8:30 AM. The first news arrived when the doors of the bank opened at 9:00 AM. Our first customer was a representative of a local school system. He commented that he had heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. We asked him if it was a commercial airliner with passengers on board. He said that he had heard it was a small plane with not many passengers. We were under the assumption that it was small news plane. Within minutes, the drive thru and lobby was filling up and customers were all telling us that another plane had hit the world trade center and that the damage was horrific. We turned on the radio and phoned the bank officers to let them know what was going on. There was a television in our break room and people were all taking turns going back to look at the news. My first break at actually seeing the damage on television was around 9:50 AM. I remember being in shock at the damage surrounding the world trade centers, the people crying and running, the towers burning. I was watching television live when the first tower went down. The room was full of other employees and all you heard was a collective gasp as the tower folded. In my heart, I knew that there were still people inside the tower as it fell but I hoped and prayed that everyone had gotten out. Shortly after, I had to return to work and listen to the radio reports. I heard the radio report of the second tower falling, the hit at the Pentagon, the crash in Pennsylvania. I remember the fear as the airline industry was shut down and planes were grounded. I knew the significance of shutting down the airline industry and the possibility that there were still terrorists waiting to attack. The thought of a nuclear strike on American soil went through my head. The fear of not knowing what was coming next or who was engineering these strikes struck deep in my heart. All I wanted to do was go home and stay glued to the television. By 3:30 PM that day, there was a rumor of gas gouging and price increases to over $5.00 a gallon. The rumors hit record levels and the lines at the gas stations were hours long. When I left work at 5 PM, I was twenty minutes from home and my gas tank was still on empty from this morning. It was hard to believe that only nine hours had passed since my early morning thoughts of getting gas after work, no big deal. I was stuck in a traffic jam at the gas tanks for over an hour when all I wanted to do was get home and hug my children close. When I arrived home, I stayed glued to the television, crying along with the rest of America. My children asked if they were safe or if the terrorists were going to hurt them too. My son, aged 7, had wrote a paper at school about the terrorist attacks in his own words, punctuation, and spelling. It said, "The terist fleood arpplanse's in the wod trane santr and nocd it down and lads of peple got hart and lads of peple dide be cas the terist fleood the arpplanse's. They mad the drivres go bak in the planse and then they fleood the arpplanse's in the bilding and peple got hart and they wint too the hospital and peple dide and got burnd and mor peple dide and wint to hevn and peple cride." I was impressed at his understanding and was saddened by the loss of innocence. May we always remember that loss of innocence and our triumph over those who only practice hate.
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Mary | 30 | Michigan
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#2133 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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Hello,
I was on my way to work in New York City, by 34th street when the first tower was hit. When I walked into the office my co-workers were listening to news coverage on the radio, and I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that this wasn't a normal working day. A co-worker told me what had just happened. I walked over to my desk and turned my computer onto the news. I was in total shock. I ran outside to the deli where a huge screen was showing all of this horror. I couldn't believe when I saw the second tower being hit. I stood there for a few minutes with some people from work. When I went back upstairs to my desk, I got an email from our HR department stating that if employees did not feel safe in the city, then it was okay for us to go home, however, there was no way out of NY. No buses, trains or taxi's running. I knew I had to walk home. I called my husband, who was off from work and home that day. He told me the best way to get home. I grabbed two of my co-workers and decided to walk the bridge onto Queens and walk, walk, walk. Since I had high heels on that day, I stopped by a shoe store and bought a pair of flat shoes, preparing me for a long walk home. I walked endlessly through the bridge and once I arrived at Queens I was able to contact my husband where he picked me up about a mile and a half after the bridge. When I got home I hugged my 7 and a half month old son and 8 yr old daughter, and together watched the coverage on the news. I will never forget this day.
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Maddie | 30 | New York
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#2061 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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14.45 in Italy, i was in my office and worked..............i tried to understand what was it happening thruoght internet, i didn't believe what my eyes did see..........all was so absurd, at today i am not able to to understand the reasons of all this..............
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massimo | 30 | Italy
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#2038 | Wednesday, September 11th 2002
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I was at home in England watching a movie when of a sudden the a news flash came up saying a plane has crash into the twin tower my heart was thumping really hard and then i saw the second one hit that when i realise this was no accident i had tears to my eyes and said why would anyone want to hurt so many people, i watched then news and i was so upset to see many people killed. My heart goes out to the families and
i pray for them may the victims rest in peace. This is the day that will never be forgotten in the 21st century for a such tradegy to happen.
god bless you America
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rena | 30 | United Kingdom
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