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#1441 | Friday, July 5th 2002
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I was at school. I heard about it in government class.
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W. | 15 | Maryland
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#1398 | Saturday, June 15th 2002
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I was wondering why passersby were eyeing me strangely. Here I was hauling my luggage through downtown Salt Lake City, Utah on the morning of September 11th. I woke up early that day, about to train a class of Social Security employees on the secrets of successful PowerPoint presentations; however, my first cab driver dropped me off at the former Social Security office, the wrong location! I had incredible trouble making a cell phone call. All I needed to do was call another cab!
Finally, I hailed one down. Ironically, the cab driver said, eyeing all my luggage and computer equipment, "I hope you don't think you're going to the airport because the airport is closed." "That's odd," I thought. "Why is the airport closed?"
Saying nothing outloud, I asked to be taken to the Social Security Office. We drove in silence for about 5 minutes until he broke it. "You do know what's happened, miss, don't you?"
When the cab driver unfolded the story of the attack on the World Trade Centers, I thought it was the end of the world. An SSA employee met me at the corner and helped the cabbie and I unload. He then told me of the attack on the Pentagon. I felt as if my heart had been ripped out and my body began to sway. My brother, a Verizon employee, worked as a telephone installer in the Pentagon.
We proceeded to the classroom where I methodically went through the motions of setting up my equipment and distributing handouts to my trainees. I could not stop thinking about my brother. They could not stop thinking about the attacks. I taught the course for about an hour until it was announced that all government buildings were closed.
I had no hotel room. I had no plane ticket. My original itinerary was to teach in Salt Lake City and fly to Denver to teach the employees there. My hotel room was waiting in Denver but I had no way to get there.
I was a stranded traveler. Would I ever get home to my husband and children?
I ended up being stranded for 6 days in Salt Lake City. I was able to get another hotel room but with much difficulty. I became very suspicious of some Iranians staying at my hotel, who were smiling and happy. It appeared to me they were "setting up shop" for the Olympics. As we set in separate chairs in the lobby, they whispered together, until spotting the government emblem on my computer bag. They stopped talking and abruptly left. I reported their actions to the FBI upon my return to Maryland. (I will never know if an attack was planned for the Olympics but if so, my sole intention was to thwart it!)
I stayed glued to the television for those 6 days. I cried. I prayed for my brother. It was later that I found out my brother had not worked in the Pentagon for over a year. His detail had ended and he had been on vacation at the Ocean on September 11th, unknown to us. (My other siblings also erroneously believed that he was still working at the Pentagon.) However, the Verizon employee who replaced my brother in his previous position perished.
I didn't realize how much my teenagers cared about me. Since I travel often and rather sporadically, they had no idea which city I was in. When they learned from their father where I was, they phoned me at 2 o'clock in the morning in a panic. They just wanted to talk about the attacks and make sure that I was safe.
September 11th remains a nightmare to me. I cannot begin to imagine the anguish of a child who will never see her mother walk through the door again, or a wife who expects to hear her husband's key in the lock.
Life as we knew it will never be the same. Today, I make sure I say "I love you" to everyone I care about.
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Connee | 45 | Maryland
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#1364 | Sunday, June 2nd 2002
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June 2, 2002
My name is...well, I'm not going to give my name, but I've been on this website before. I wrote in the first time as #772, and you can check it out if you want to.
I'm fourteen now, and I was thirteen when it happened. It was even more terrifying for me, being on the East Coast.
I just thought that I should write because of some things that are going on in the world right now, like with India and Pakistan.
We've evacuated Americans from that area because we think that there's going to be a nuclear war. Our roughest estimates say that if this war were to actually be engaged, seventeen million people would die in the first week. We're living in a world on the brink of World War III, and I think that we should all unite, not just as a nation, but as a species, as children and creations of God.
Our government is doing the right thing by trying to stop this terrible war.
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Anonymous | 14 | Maryland
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#1346 | Thursday, May 30th 2002
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I remember exactly where I was. I was stuck in traffic trying to get onto campus at the University of Maryland. I was waiting for the light onto campus to turn green when I heard a local morning show newsman break into the DJs’ schtick to announce that a plane had just struck the World Trade Center. They were wondering what happened. Speculation that this was just an accident went on for minutes....then the second plane struck. I got onto campus and ran to the journalism building, where a crowd of my peers were standing and watching. I watched with them for the next couple of hours as the plane hit the pentagon and as both towers fell. I remember going to one of the phones nearby and waking up my friend who had yet to hear. I asked, “You know the world trade center?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well they aren’t there anymore.” It was a terrible day...God bless all who were lost. God bless us all.
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Gerald | 22 | Maryland
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#1164 | Sunday, April 7th 2002
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i rember september 11th very well i was sitting in my 2nd period class and were listening to what was going on, on the radio the entire class was, but none of us really understood what was going on and just continued working on our projects...then came 5th period when our teacher explained what was happening almost every 5 min. a kid was pulled out of class over the intercom...i got very nervous because both my step-mom and my dad work there and all i could do was pray that they were okay. when i got home from school..i recived many phone calls from my friends and family. and now being april 7th i am still praying for the families who lost loved ones... many things that i have read about after september 11th were very sad and one of the things i read was that people were wondering "where was god on september 11th" and i thought about it and God was there!! i mean think about how long he held the towers up so that people could get out. and for those who didnt all my thoughts and prayers are with them and there family and to make sure they no that they are in a good place with god. And i think that america has become STRONGER and more UNITED as it will ever be!!!!!!!!!!!! GoD bLeSs
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kate | 14 | Maryland
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