story5963.xml

story5963.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

I had gone asleep late that morning, so I had woken up late to go to school by my mother, I remember me being asleep and I heard her knocking, to hurry up and get ready for school, I go to college. I open up the door and she tells me, that the towers in New York had been hit by a plane and that they thought it was a terrorist acts, I told her, "I don't think so, I think it was just some kind of accident," So I turn on the TV, while getting dressed. I saw the images of the towers and all that smoke going out of them, and how they kept on repeating the moment that the planes hit them. It was hard to believe but each time, it just kept on sinking deeper making the thought a reality, I told my mom "I have to record this, THIS IS HISTORY in the making!" So I put a tape in the VCR, not knowing it will take a total of 4-5 tapes to get EVERYTHING, and told her, "forget it, I'm NOT going to school, this is HISTORY," A few minutes later, we heard the reports of the Pentagon being hit, and then seeing a few images. Thats when it hit me and I told my mom, "This means WAR, we are at WAR," I guess she didn't understand the seriousness of the Pentagon also being hit, at that time she did not know what it was, her not being a citizen from here, she told me, "How could it be war?" I told her, it was so OBVIOUS that 3 planes go hijacked and hit some of our most historical buildings, we watched as President Bush have his first reaction and speech of the tragedies while being at an elementary school in Florida. It was so painful. We watched as they reported how he was taking to a undisclosed location. We watched when we heard of the 4th plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. IT was HORRIBLE. so painful that I cried, I cried for those people, that I had never met in my life, I watched in horror, seeing the people jumping out of the windows of the towers, the most awful sight that I will never forget and have engraved in my memory forever. I couldn't imagine the panic, that these people were feeling, trying to get out, or knowing that they will die, and prefered dying other than getting burned and jumping out the buildings. I couldn't imagine what would of happened if the last plane would have actually hit the White House, the most symbolic building of the U.S. What would of happened? I couldn't imagine the last thoughts of those who died in the planes, the thoughts, the pain and the terror. It hit me hard, after almost EVERY channel on TV was covering this, from the FOOD network, even MTV, some stopped programing, i found it overwhelming. that made it a reality. We watched in terror when the first buidling colapsed, I had called my aunt. She lived in New York but we didn't know what part she lived at. She didn't know anything that was going on because she had overslept and didn't go to work, where we later find out she worked a few blocks away from the towers. As soon as the first tower is going down, about half way, the line gets disconnected, i was HORRIFIED, i started thinking the worst, that maybe she lived near to the towers and the building had gotten destroyed, damaged, all types of thoughts going through my head. we tried and tried to reach her, the line was busy, we had heard in the news how some people had lost power and everything....We didn't have contact with her until 2 am. which brought so much relief. just seeing the images of that first tower hit, brings me back with those feelings of sadness, disgust, and pain.