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#448 | Monday, December 10th 2001
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On Sept. 11, 2001, I was sitting at home working on my homework. I decided to take a break. So, I turned on the television. Someone had been watching public broadcasting the night before, so a news story about the terrorist attacks was showing from the BBC. At first, I thought it was some sort of prank or joke. I changed the channel and found that all of the news networks were covering the story. My disbelief became shock, then anger. I was ready to bomb anybody involved until they could not function as a society, though now, I just want justice.
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Aaron | 22 | Florida
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#420 | Sunday, December 9th 2001
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September 11th, 2001 started like any other day for me. I woke up, went through my morning ritual, and eventually found myself at High School around 7:00am, where I would go every single day of the week, save national holidays. This particular day, I went on a field trip in my Enviromental Science class to do a community service project at a state local park. It was about nine or so in the morning; we had just finished plowing a garden and were trudging towards our next assignment when one of the park rangers approached us with chilling news: A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. That was the only information we had recieved, and it seemed that the lady herself had little knowledge on what had happened.
We proceeded as normal throughout the day, but the thought of a plane crashing into a building as renowned as the World Trade Center simply shocked me. With the little information I had received from the park ranger, I assumed that some small plane had gone off course and clipped the building, causing minor damage. I couldn't possibly comprehend the disaster that had occured in actuality. But when I returned to school that day at lunchtime, the full scope of the disaster hit me like a brick hurtling at the speed of sound.
I approached my friends at our lunch table with a slew of questions to ask. I could tell that something very terrible had happened; the mood was grim, the air so thick with soberiety I could cut it with a knife. I asked my close friend, Justin, what had exactly happened. He explained that a pair of hijacked airliners had plowed through both towers of the World trade Center, LEVELING both buildings even before I arrived back at school. Somewhere along the line he mentioned that Washington had been hit as well, but my two-dimentional mind never completely absorbed it.
I cannot even begin to express the surge of emotions that swallowed me when I absorbed what my freind had told me. Although I never shed a tear, my entire soul plunged into grief and shock, a deep and hollow pain that agonized me for the next several days.
I reflected a lot about the twin towers and how they effected my life; the most significant memory that came to mind was when I had traveled to New York City with my father when I was seven, and how we had taken the subway to Manhattan and visited the trade towers; I remember looking up and seeing two gigantic columns of steel and glass rising up almost as far as I could see, and how the sight had stole my breath; I remember how we had taken the elevator all those floors up to the observation level and looked down upon the world as if we were floating in space.
The more gruesome details of the events were revealed to me later in day via news channels, details that further widened the hole that was forming in my chest. When I saw a chronological showing of the days events, the awful reality of the situation finally made it's way into my mind; denial and ignorance quickly fell back as the truth shone. I watched as the first, then the second plane impacted; the flames erupting from the towers and the bodies of countless individuals plummeting from the windows; the rush of rescue personnel as they raced into the buildings to save the injured and wounded; the spray of debris as the towers imploded from weakened support beams, the hundereds of lives crushed in the inferno of concrete, metal, and fire; and the fog of dust as it settled upon lower Manhattan.
My selfish mind was so absorbed by the chaos in New york that I barely flinched when I viewed the images of what also had happened in Washington and Pennsylvania. I would be unable to fully accept those terrible events until much later in the day.
What happened on 9/11 has changed me forever. Whether it has changed me for better or for worse, I will probably never find out. I can only hope that all of the people that died on September 11th will rest in peace and will go on to a better existance somewhere else, somewhere where such violent acts of violence could never occur. God Bless America!!!
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Max | 16 | Florida
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#373 | Saturday, December 8th 2001
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I had just returned from a job site to pick up materials from home when I heard an emergency news flash on the radio that Tower 1 of the WTC had been hit by a plane. I thought maybe it was only a private plane until I ran into my home and turned on the T.V. then saw differently. My wife & I were watching as the second plane hit Tower 2 and I knew right then that neither crash was an accident and cold chills raced through me immediatly. I feel that these feelings of horror and disbelief were partly due because my wife & I were just in NY on Aug. 18th at WTC Tower 2 on top veiwing NY, and we knew of all the lives that had just been extinguished so terribly. We will remember this day forever, and our prayers go out to everyone whose lives were forever changed by these dasterdly deeds. God Bless America!
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Michael | 38 | Florida
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#355 | Saturday, December 8th 2001
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I was at the PSI warehouse when it all occured. A colleague told me that a plane caused another to crash into the WTC. We quickly turned on the radio and everybody gathered around it. Then the second plane hit and I knew it was no accident. Immediately I began thinking that somebody was purposely committing these acts.
My wife then called me and said the Pentagon had been hit. I knew we were going to war. Everybody including myself was walking around in a daze. We just couldn't believe what was going on. The warehouse shut down and we all went home to watch the incredible horror on the television.
Those images took my breath away. All I could think of was those poor innocent people dying on the tower. How can anybody be so cruel???
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David | 25 | Florida
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#320 | Saturday, December 8th 2001
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I live in the Central Time Zone, so at 8am I rolled over and turned on the radio to help me wake up. The news announcer was talking about a fire in the top of the World Trade Center. I decided to get up and see if there were pictures, yet, on the TV. I stumbled into the living room and clicked on the television where, indeed, Good Morning, America had the WTC on the screen. They were discussing how a plane had crashed into one of the towers when I saw a plane crash into the other one! The hosts gasped and immediately started to say that this was NOT an accident like they thought the first plane was. I just sat there stunned beyond belief. I could not believe the utter horror I was witnessing. From that moment on I never left the couch except for short sprints to the kitchen or bathroom. When it got to a later time, I called my dad in California and told him something terrible had happened and to turn on his TV. He doesn't listen to the radio or watch much TV so he needed to hear what had happened.
What I did next was get out our flag and put it up. I didn't have a flag holder attached to the house so I put some nails up under the porch and hung it flat. It took many weeks for me to find a bracket so I could put up my flag with the pole. I still put my flag out every day and take it in at night. Yes, it is a pain to remember, but I am showing my support for all the men and women who are fighting back for the evil done to our innocent civilians. Not only for my own countrymen and women, but for the hundreds of people from other countries who were also killed, do I put the flag out.
May God stamp out the evil that perpetrated this horrendous thing on the world.
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Karen | 51 | Florida
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