story329.xml

story329.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-03-28

I am 22 years old, and I was taking a semester off college to work at Walt Disney World as a college intern. I should say that the events of September 11th affected me personally because I am from Virginia and attend George Mason University, which is of course very close to Washington DC where the Pentagon was hit. September 11th was interesting for me especially because of my location. I can also mention I was actually on Disney Property in company sponsored housing. I was coming back from a friend's apartment at around 8:35 in the morning. My friend was a lifeguard at a water park in WDW, always at work by 9. It was my day off and I decided to watch a little TV, so I began flipping though the channels. "BREAKING NEWS". I kept flipping...Every channel? I thought. It seemed so odd. So, I thought to back up, deciding on the TODAY show. I watched when they had video of the second plane hitting tower 2 of the WTC, and the watched the confusion of a man reporting on the Pentagon incident. Five of the six roommates in our apartment gathered around to watch the television; Kara was getting dressed for work in her room. She came out, and left to get on the bus. Not two minutes later, she returned. With a look of confusion, she said, ?They wouldn?t let me on the bus.? We then heard it on the news and in the halls of our apartment building. They had closed all for Disney Theme Parks. It was the first time in history, 30 years. I called home on my cell phone, as I walked outside my apartment, I could see students on cell phones and cordless phones. I think I counted 25 that I could see from my front door. I got through to my parents and was able to find out that everyone was doing all right. George Mason University had closed, and my friends and family were relatively unaffected. After a while, six friends from my work went to a friend?s house for lunch and dinner to get away from it all, and just to get off of Walt Disney World Property. I remember talking about it, crying and worrying. We were supposedly number 4 on a terrorist hit list. Eventually we watched a string of Disney Cartoons to keep us from thinking about it, but it was unavoidable. What stuck me personally about September 11th was actually September 12th. I went back to work at around 11:00am, and we had very strict orders from our managers not to bring up the event of the day before. I went on ?stage? and took over the register position at a stand outside. Trying to dodge the subject of the tragedy, I asked a usual question, ?So where are you visiting from?? The quiet response from a middle aged man? ?New York.? My response was, ?Oh.? But that wasn?t enough for the guest in front of me. He said, ?No, you don?t understand, I worked in the WTC on the 110th floor, and this, yesterday was the first time I?ve been on vacation in almost 5 years. I had a stack of papers this high on my desk?(demonstrating with hand gestures) And I came to Disney World. The expression on his face was contorted into that of utter grief and pain?