9/11 Five Years Later.......

[BiCoastal Kid]

Yes respect, but I'm of the "get over it!' mentality. I can't wait for the day when 9/11 get's such a passing mention as Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, Chernobyl, etc.

[Blazen_AZN]

I remember it pretty clearly, i was 9, and it was the first day of school. I woke up when the phone rang, it was my grandma, my sister picked up, then my sister started zscreaming for everyone to get down to the living room, where where she turned on the TV. I couldn't believe it was happening. Right before i left for school the first tower collapsed.

 

 

That week i went out and bought a TIME magazine about it. Its still on my desk.

[USRoadTripper]

I was sitting in my first class of the day in college...an editing class. This girl, who was notorious for being late, came into class at maybe 8:45 or so, and immediately interrupted the professor. She asked if any of us had heard that a plane had hit one of the towers, and the reaction was sort of a "Yeah, that's just media being sensational. Someone probably clipped a cell phone antennae and they're making it out like it's a big deal!" But after a few more minutes, the professor let the class go, saying that he wanted to find out more about what had happened.

Having a few minutes to spare, I tried to pull up CNN.com, but wasn't able to, but eventually I managed to get it to load a photo of both towers burning. I went on to my next class, with it not really sinking in yet about how bad it was.

Well, my next professor was truly freaking out...saying that none of us would be alive that time next week, etc. So needless to say, she didn't hold class that day. I wandered to the student union where the TV lounge was packed with as many people as it could hold, everyone just dead silent watching the news and reading about the local evacuations. I still wasn't too freaked out about it until I read that the skyscraper my uncle worked in in downtown Nashville was evacuated "just in case."

So I went to my car and sat and listened to the radio for probably another 3 hours or more. I was an hour outside of Nashville at the time, and was quite scared to go back into the city since my house was so close to downtown.

And I remember that it was a beautiful day. Perfect temperature and not a cloud in the sky, and I felt so, so guilty for enjoying it that day.

I had that same professor for my last semester in college, and in a conversation with him before I graduated, he said that soon I'd forget all about him. And I told him no, I was in your class when I learned about 9/11...I'll never forget you. Flashbulb memory is strange like that.

 

-Julie

[mike541x]

In 4th grade my friends and I were done with lunch so we head to the classroom before recess. We pass the main lobby and there were TONS of parents there. Then out at the Kickball field A friend told 2 of us what was happening. Then the recess was cut short and a teacher told us what was happening and so we left home early and I watched the news.

[CoasterExpert13]

I was at home very sick and sleeping....I remember waking up and looking out my windows...it was a really bright and beautiful day...I just kepty thinking...I gotta rot in the bed all day when I really want to go outside...Just a few minutes later my mom came running in, yelliny "David, turn on the news, turn on the news!" Then she runs back out...So I turn on the news and see a towers on fire (at the time I didn't know it was the world trade centers or new york) Then.....out of now where...BLAM...a plane flies right into the 2nd tower...I remember sitting up and yelling WTF!...Thats when I found out what was going on...Stunned silent...I watched the havoc on the streets of New York. I couldn't belive something like this could or would ever happen...Then one of the towers fell...All I could think of was all those people, who wouldn't get the chance to see tomorrow and here I was a few minutes ago complaining about being sick. At this point, sad and angry...Sometime later...maybe a few minutes later...the second tower fell...I remember turning off the tv at that point...I couldn't watch anymore because my eyes were so watered up....My mom and I left to pick up my sister from school..being that Pittsburgh...is so close to new york everyone thought that there was a chance they could do the same to us...so they shut down the whole downtown here...remember looking around...it was empty....no cars, no buses...the thing open was Arbys...people were crowded inside trying to watch the news and use the bathroom....we finally reached my school...pulled my sister out and headed home...by this time traffic was horrible....we didn't move for almost an hour. December 10th, 2005 is when I got my chance to visit ground zero..by this time...all the debris was cleaned up just about...all that was left was two massivly huge squared plots where the WTC once stood...A very sad site...I can't image what went through peoples minds after witnessing something so devastating...that day seemed to stretch on forever.

[Galen]

I was living and working in Bogota, Colombia at the time. I remember the shock and awe of the thing...totally surreal. But being an American in another country lessened it for me. I was also brought back to reality when a couple of days later, a colombian friend of mine stated to me, "Welcome to the rest of the world". I guess being born and raised in a country with a 40 year civil war, where thousands die every year, it puts everything into perspective for me.

I just hope we can move on from this...eventually.