My 9/11 story.... My ex and I were still sleeping when the north tower was hit. That is when my mom came in to tell us was that the World Trade Center was attacked. My first reaction was "What?" An act that seemed so hard to believe. When I got out to see the TV the south tower had been hit. That was 9:03AM. I just stood their in shock. What seemed like only minutes (which was actually much longer) I watch both towers came crashing down. Absolute devastation, not just for the people there in New York but for the whole country. There was nothing much to do but cry and watch the TV for the incoming news. That is exactly what we did. I remember walking back into my room to see if the ex was watching the incoming news and he was. He looked at me and said "Osama Bin Laden did this". I had no clue who that was at the time. But like many across the country and the world, I wish I had never heard that name.
On March 22, 1994 I was a Junior in High School. I was on my way to England with a group of classmates. We spent a glorious three hours in New York City. The World Trade Center was one of our stops. The above picture is one of the many I took. I don't remember which tower this is. But I distinctly remember taking it. Standing there and looking up. Being from a small town I was in awe of something so massive. Growing up I was told (and probably many others heard this too) that we would never experience anything as bad as World War II or the bombing of Pearl Harbor in our life time. But they were wrong. Once again a single event has changed us and change the world.
So, really that's my 9/11 story. It's not as profound as many, but I'm glad I shared it. 10 years later my heart still aches for all the lives lost and all lives ruined. My prayers go out to all the first responders and the soldiers that died fighting for the country... to the soldiers who are still fighting for this country.
To all who died and those who survived God bless!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your 9/11 moment. I don't think it matters where you were when it happened--we were all affected, as Americans, as people, as citizens of a global community.
ReplyDeleteI was twenty-one, and walking through World Trade 5 when the first tower hit, on my way to catch the subway with my dad, since I was working at his company for the summer. The building shook and people started screaming for us to get out. We hit street level, just in time to see the second plane hit.
It was like watching a movie, like Independence Day, where the world as you know it gets blown up but it's okay because it's not really real, right? It took a lot of time and therapy for me to work through everything I saw and experienced that day.
The eeriest thing, IMHO, was the silence. As we were evacuated from the area via the Brooklyn Bridge, among thousands of other people, not a word was spoken. Tears, yes. Gasps and shaking heads and whimpers of pain from the injured, definitely. But no one was speaking. There just didn't seem like there was anything left to say at that moment.
Lori
Lori,
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by and sharing your story. Even though I seen what was happening on tv. I can't even imagine what it was like to go through.
One of the many things that stuck with me from my few hours in NYC was how loud it was. But the silence that came that day must have been deafening.