9/11 - 10 Years On

[Kirkman1987]

I was 14, living in Missouri and in school that day. My school had a teachers meeting that morning, just before classes were to begin, and it was decided to keep us in the dark. I really wasn't sure what was going on, but it was obvious that many of the adults were worried or distracted, and a lot of kids were unexpectedly picked up by their parents.

I took the bus home. It was always a rowdy and loud bus, and I was a quiet kid, so I usually spaced out until I got home. I heard murmurs from the older high school students of some kind of an attack or bombing. I didn't give it a great deal of though until I walked home to see my mother glued to the television, and the image on the screen was of the plane hits and building collapses. The size of the event sunk in instantly and I stopped in my tracks to watch the television. Like most, I would be glued to the television for days.

 

[JRS]

I was 21 at 9/11, still living in Finland at the time.
My day was pretty normal. until the evening.
I went to work normally and after that I had classes at evenings school. After few classes I went with my bicycle to a video rental to get myself some movie.
The girl behind the counter was watching the news..and was explaining to another customer what was happening in the USA. The image of Manhattan engulfed in smoke filled the screen of the small television in the corner.
I blinked few times..and then rushed out from the store.
I cycled to home as fast as I could. Back at home I talked with my parents and was watching the horrible scenes from the live coverage of Finnish television( I watched for hours).
I just could not believe what was happening..it was so horrible. I went trough lots of emotions on that and following days..from shock and sadness to even anger.
The events touched me deeply..and I have read lot about the attacks since from books..and so on.

This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the horrible terrorist attacks of 9/11.Today we remember those who lost their lives in that sad day. The people who died came from at least 80 different countries, from many different cultures and religions. May they all rest in peace.
Lots of love and peaceful thoughts to all of you, wherever you are.

 

[Finn]

The real Finn wouldn't be born for other three years (he's 7 today)

Ten years ago, it was my senior year in college. I often turned on the news when I got up. But that morning, I just got dressed and dragged myself to the cafeteria where I found people gathered around the TVs. I walked up to a friend and I asked what was going on. The image of the twin towers the smoke was on the screen. This was about 15 minutes before the pentagon was hit. After eating tater tots, I walked to class. By the time I got to class, the pentagon had been hit. The prof led us to a nearby office where we could see the smoke column. Classes were called off soon. I had RA duty that night. I kept myself busy looking at CNN online.

Oh, and a guy I grew up with was driving by the pentagon when he saw the plane swoop in and the fireball that resulted. He said the traffic stopped and scores of drivers got out and stood on an embankment and looked at the pentagon.

 

[eastman23]

The first I heard of what was going on was on the radio while I was driving to school. By this time, both towers had been hit already. When I arrived at school, I mentioned what was going on to the teacher on bus duty that morning and he didn't believe me at the time.

We still had classes the rest of the day, but some of the teachers had radios on so we could listen to the news and there were TVs set up in one room tuned to different channels throughout the day. The room was packed during every break and lunch hour with students and staff taking it all in.

 

[TedShatner10]

I was in my first week of Sixth Form and events transpired while I was in Media Studies - I heard people on their mobile phones talking about a plane crashing into the Pentagon when I came out, then when I was going back home in a taxi cab I was hearing Tony Blair rant about terrorism concurrently to the Hindenberg-esque commentary about the World Trade Centre vanishing. Came home and saw the dramatic footage for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

9/11 was a key event that has seemingly dislocated everything in the Western world , with its effects still playing out - Blair on hindsight really went off the rails from that day, GWB was the wrong person at the wrong time, the post-WWII economy in North America and Western Europe started to really falter in 2001, perhaps never really recovering as we know it (Enron and Dotcom Crash, etc), and the conflict in Afghanistan is still grinding on and on and on.

 

[Rincewiend]

I was at work but i didn't hear about it until about 2 hours later when i came home and my dad was looking at the TV...
The first impact happened at 14:46 hours local time and we did have the radio on at work but it was a bit of a rowdy day and nobody paid any attention to it when the regular news came up at 15:00 and 16:00 hours...
After dinner i went on line and checked TBBS...

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I was sitting in a real estate office in a small town on eastern Long Island (two hours from NYC), inquiring re selling my father's house. Someone came into the office and told us what was happening. I immediately drove back to the house. There was no radio or TV there, though (they were in the assisted living place with my father), so my friend and I went for a long ride so we could listen to the car radio. lol Watched TV at a neighbor's for a little while and then at the general store for a couple hours. We were supposedly there for a long weekend, but we ended up staying over a week, because all the bridges in and around NYC were shut down, and we couldn't get home.

ETA that what touched me most was the friendly, supportive atmosphere in the village where we were staying. For example, my friend, who'd never been in the general store before, went there to get batteries for an old transistor radio we'd found in the house. When she got there, she realized that she didn't have any money and started to leave. But the owner insisted on giving her the batteries anyway without even asking who she was or where she was staying.

 

[Amasov]

Oddly enough the most vivid memory for me that day, and I've everyone I've talked to about where they were this day agrees, it was such a nice day outside. It was a perfect 72 degrees. No wind. No humidity. No cloud in the sky. It was such a perfect day. I even commented on it when I was walking to school with two friends of mine.

I was 17 years old at the time and was starting my senior year in high school. We hadn't even been back to school a week yet. My first class of the day was my Art Major class. It began at 7.50 AM. About forty-five minutes later, the bell rang and we switched classes to start second period, which was probably about the exact time the first plane collided with the World Trade Center. I was in the hall and stopped to talk to a friend for a second and then proceeded up to my history class.

We were in there for about three minutes when another one of our history teachers came in and informed ours of what happened. Again, at that time, it was only the first plane that collided. His exact words were, "A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center," and living just a mile south of Boston (where the first two planes left) and having a World Trade Center on the waterfront, we immediately raced to the window as we thought it was ours that was hit.

A moment later, our principal came over the P.A. and informed the school of what happened and said it was New York. He also told us our library had TVs set up, broadcasting the news. I was asked to go down and see what I could find out. I remember I flew down there. I entered and saw a few friends and talked to them while watching. It was then that the second plane collided with the second building, but there was confusion at first since many of us thought it was a replay of the first plane's collision. But then when it was clear it was a second collision on the other building, the mood changed greatly.

Throughout the day, a lot of us didn't feel the least bit safe and wanted to leave. It wasn't our teenage mindset in that we were looking for an excuse to get out of school. We genuinely felt unsafe and wanted to get home.

And I will never forget this part of the day either. No one at the school wanted us to leave as they didn't feel it was safe. I remember commenting to some friends, "We live about four streets away from here. What could happen?"

Then we find out a few minutes later, the Citizen's Bank up the street from us was being evacuated because of an Anthrax scare.

The adrenaline rush I had been experiencing as the events unfolded throughout was something I will never forget. I can just think back and just remember exactly how I felt.

In the ten years since, my sister has given birth to three kids, giving me three nieces. I know there is going to be a time when they're older when they come to me and ask where I was that day. In addition to telling them my story, I'll then pull out all of the newspapers and magazines I started to save from the following day.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Amasov, you aren't the only one who was so struck by the weather that day. To this day I get kind of uneasy when I see completely clear, cloudless skies around this time of year. I also keep coming back to that image as a symbol of disaster in my writing.

It was my freshman year of college in my first month of being away from home.

I didn't turn on the TV or anything that morning before class at 9:30 local time; I just rolled out of bed and went out my door. By the time I got there, everybody was buzzing about the attacks, but I didn't believe them. There's a scenario in Tom Clancy's book Debt of Honor that is very close to what actually happened on 9/11, so I accused some people of having read the book and made that up as a sick joke.

When our professor came in and said the same thing, I knew this was for real. My first thought was fear for my dad, who was in the Air Force and had taken vacation for a house-hunting trip. I knew the country was now at war and that meant anything could happen to him.

Our professor canceled class and when I got back to the dorm I saw the footage of what had happened. I remember crying and being glued to the news all day.

I changed a lot because of what happened. I'd been very idealistic in my high-school days but that was destroyed on 9-11, having seen just what horrible things can happen in the world. And even though I am blessed not to have lost family or friends in the attacks, it still hurts.

Sometimes art helps me work those things out. It may be fanfic, but one of my novellas, The Desolate Vigil, draws strongly from my actual experiences and just as strongly from the fears I had of how things could get even worse when we were attacked. I am in the early stages now of a painting from the moment when the characters of that story were notified of their horror; I think for me it's a way of trying to capture and express the emotions of the real day.

 

[FPAlpha]

It was around 3pm and i was online doing some surfing but coincidentally enough i didn't see any news there online.

By chance i turned on the TV to see what's playing and then i saw the burning towers and heard the reporters claiming it were two planes that hit the towers, most likely a terrorist attack.

I saw the towers crumble down and i thought "Shit.. the Americans will go nuts over this one. This will be war..."

Called my parents and told them to turn on the TV immediately and spent most of the day watching the news.

I've seen some history made in my time (born 75).. the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union, the russian coup a few years after but this was something else.. something really bad and i was afraid the world would turn to crap if this would get out of hand.

I was moved by the aftermath though.. the rest of the world sometimes think that americans are lazy and cowards but on that day so many brave and courageous people showed their face when they rushed into burning and collapsing buildings to save others sometimes at the cost of their own lives.. it really impressed me.

One thing though that stuck with me was Jon Stewarts (The Daily Show) first episode after 9/11.. i've rarely seen a more heartfelt and honest reply than this. Go watch it.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I saw the towers crumble down and i thought "Shit.. the Americans will go nuts over this one. This will be war..."

I must confess I thought the same thing. Obviously, we were right. But 10 years later, I must say it was not as bad as I thought at the time.

I've seen some history made in my time (born 75).. the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union, the russian coup a few years after but this was something else.. something really bad and i was afraid the world would turn to crap if this would get out of hand.

The Fall of the Wall and the dissolution of the USSR was both scaring and exhilarating. It could go very wrong very easily, with an entire nuclear arsenal being passed from hands to hands, but it was also a moment of hope and enthusiasm. 9/11, on the other hand, was just a terrible day.

 

[sidious618]

I saw the towers crumble down and i thought "Shit.. the Americans will go nuts over this one. This will be war..."

I must confess I thought the same thing. Obviously, we were right. But 10 years later, I must say it was not as bad as I thought at the time.

I was 12 at the time so it never occurred to me how the attacks would be twisted by others in order to help their own agenda. Suffice to say growing up during the time I did made me rather cynical about the political process.

 

[iguana_tonante]

I can see why.

 

[FPAlpha]

9/11 is maybe also responsible for me taking an active interest in politics, especially US politics.

I never liked Bush jr. that much but figured "Hey.. that dude will be gone in 4 years and the world is pretty much stable right now.. how much damage can he do in 4 years?" and a mere year and a half later he presides over the biggest internal catastrophe in their entire history.

In the years that followed i was really scared and upset at the Bush administration for what they did and how they did it.. any other Republican or Democrat president would have gone full force to Afghanistan against Al Quaeda and pound them into submission and not leave until Seal DevGru would have delivered Bin Laden's head years earlier. But once "main fighting" stopped it became apparent that something else was in the works and the entire world became much darker.. a superpower unleashed and not caring a bit about allies, friends, international law and unwritten international rules.

It was telling that in a very short time the support of the entire free world evaporated over night and turned to disbelief to outright anger at the actions of the US.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

^^^That also makes me sad and angry as well. The whole world was with us after 9/11, and our political leaders squandered that support.

I saw the towers crumble down and i thought "Shit.. the Americans will go nuts over this one. This will be war..."

I must confess I thought the same thing. Obviously, we were right. But 10 years later, I must say it was not as bad as I thought at the time.

I was 12 at the time so it never occurred to me how the attacks would be twisted by others in order to help their own agenda. Suffice to say growing up during the time I did made me rather cynical about the political process.

Watching the 2004 presidential elections made me so mad, because the Republicans just used 9/11 for so much political gain; it made me sick. I can't stand Rudy Giuliani for how he's used 9/11 to further his political career.

 

[Harvey]

I was a freshman in high school. I was asleep when it happened, and on my way to school when I found out most of the details. I think my dad woke me up a little early when he heard about the attack on the radio.

 

[Emher]

^^^That also makes me sad and angry as well. The whole world was with us after 9/11, and our political leaders squandered that support.

Yeah. On 9/12 I would've picked up arms to fight the monsters behind it. A few years later I just felt it had all gone to hell.

 

[Amasov]

Amasov, you aren't the only one who was so struck by the weather that day. To this day I get kind of uneasy when I see completely clear, cloudless skies around this time of year.

I took walk this afternoon and even though there are some heavy clouds about, the temperature feels almost exactly like that day that it's eerie. As of now here in Boston, there's practically no humidity and not much of a breeze. It's very much like that day ten years ago.

Last night I was watching C-SPAN and there was a panel of reporters, Dan Rather, Charlie Gibson, Brit Hume, and I can't remember who the fourth one was. They were talking about the coverage of the day and the days that followed. One question was presented to them in that what if this event were to happen today? How would it be different?

Dan Rather made an excellent point and one that I have to say I didn't really consider especially since I'm so tech-savvy.

He talked about how if it happened today, those directly affected by it would sort of be the correspondents for the news. Think about it for a moment: in 2001 we didn't have Facebook or Twitter and aside from making phone calls, the most a cell phone could do was send text messages (I didn't have one then, could you send and check email yet?).

If the Twin Towers were standing now and the attack happened today, think of all the pictures and videos that would come out of there -- especially from the affected floors.

In some ways I think it's frightening to think of what we'd be able to see from an event like this with the technology we have now.

 

[RoJoHen]

^^^That also makes me sad and angry as well. The whole world was with us after 9/11, and our political leaders squandered that support.

Yeah. On 9/12 I would've picked up arms to fight the monsters behind it. A few years later I just felt it had all gone to hell.

Believe me, so did we.

 

[bluedana]

I was 8 months pregnant with my younger son. He has never known a world that was not shadowed by 9/11, nor has my daughter, who is 7.

In all the coverage of the WTC, I find myself thinking instead of those people who were in the Pentagon when it was hit. As military people and government workers, so many people did what they were trained to do, sweeping areas to make sure everyone got out. Some of them ended up not getting out themselves.