I know this is getting a lot of media coverage today, but I thought it might be interesting to ask this question since 9/11 was the Kennedy assasination/ Berlin Wall/ Pearl Harbor of our time. What were you doing September 11th, 2001?
I started my day today doing almost just what I did (different location and with my own child) that day. I think I was even wearing the same shorts. Mike and I hadn't quite been married for a month. My Organic Chem teacher was in Greenland (and stuck there for another week and a half after Sept. 11th) so that class was already cancelled. I headed out to the BYU outdoor track with my portable radio headset thingy (same one I used today), started running and flipped on the radio to hear that the second tower had just fallen. I ran my 2 miles, goosebumps all the way- went home to find Mike with classes cancelled. We watched the towers fall over and over all day. I headed up to my Micro class in the MARB later on, which, of course, was cancelled. We were both working at PGM at that time, which I believe cancelled all their projects for a while. I didn't know anyone who was killed in the attacks, but I remember thinking how our lives were changed forever by the events of that day.
CNN.com is replaying the footage of the events today. I would love to hear what you all were doing/ thinking that day. Remember you can post to this blog without a blogger account. Click on the comments section and leave your comment- then click in anonymous or other and post! Don't forget to leave your name so I know who ya are (please:). Hope everyone has a good day.
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15 people are wicked awesome. to Where were you?:
Kyle and I had been married just two months and were living in a little apartment in Tempe, Arizona. We woke up to a call from my mom telling us to turn on the news. We turned it on just as they were showing the second plane hit and then it sunk in that it was no accident. It was shocking. I remember not wanting to leave Kyle that day. I just wanted to stay TOGETHER all day. It was really scary. He had to go to school and I had to work. I don't think we got much accomplished that day. I remember standing in the lunch room watching the news almost the whole day. It was so sad.
Dan and I were dating at the time and I was doing my student teaching. I came in a bit early and stopped at another classroom and they had the news on. I actually watched live on tv as the second plane hit. I remeber thinking "is this some wierd movie or something, it took awhile for it to sink in that this was real, I knew that it would be a defining moment for our generation, but I guess that's the history teacher in me...
I was driving, on my way to work and they said what had happened on the radio. At first I thought that it was some radio joke, I didn't think it could be for real. Then they kept talking about it and it really sunk in. The rest of the day at work was really unproductive for me, and I didn't know if my mom was flying that day or not since I coul't get a hold of her for a couple of hours. We just watched clips on the internet all day at work and listened on the radio. When I got home that night I remember watching it on tv over and over and over again on the news with my roommates, until we couldn't watch anymore. It was all so surreal, and I knew from then on things were going to be different.
I was at work and a nurse that worked with us called and said " turn on the tv i gotta go!" and hung up. I sat there thinking that she didn't tell us what to watch. Curiosity won out and I went into a vacant patient room and turned on the tv. The tv was on cnn and i saw the second plane hit and thought I was watching a movie trailer. As I watched I realized what was happening and I hit the call bell and sat on the bed. The other staff came running (they thought we had a pt no one had told us about...i was working on a tele floor at that time) and all I could do was point. I was working in a smaller hospital in Abilene and Abilene has a air force base that is home of the B1 bombers so our town was worried. That plane is only stationed at a few places in the country. Our hopsital canceled all non-ememergency sugerys and discharged all patients that we could and worried. Thankfully nothing happened to us. There was a lot of praying that day. I also remember thinking about my freshman HS history teacher. Her daughter works in the WTC and I was in her class the first time the WTC was bombed and she was so frantic. Unfortunately she didn't work at my HS anymore so I still don't know about her daughter.
I was at BYU, living a very sheltered life with no TV. It must have been a Tuesday morning (?) and I didn't have any morning classes. I walked to the Marriot Center for the Tuesday morning devotional, and everyone was so quiet. Many were crying. My first thought was that President Hinckley must have died. (I know, that's aweful, but that's what I thought). President Bateman walked to the microphone and explained that a plane had crashed into the world trade center, then they just put CNN on the big TV screens above the basketball court. We all watched the planes hit the towers in silence over and over. I don't think the Marriot Center had ever- or will ever again- have quite the same feeling. It was very unreal. I didn't know anyone in the towers, either, but I could tell the world had changed. I cried along with everybody else.
I was driving to work for an early faculty meeting at school. I remember feeling absolutely stunned when I heard the news on the radio. By the time our meeting was over, we heard about the plane hitting the pentagon. I remember deciding not to say a lot to my students, as I really felt they would be better off dealing with the situation with their parents. We did watch the president's address at school the next morning. I remember getting home that night and watching it all over and over again on CNN. It was so hard to believe that it was actually real, not just the product of a great special effects crew.
It's very weird to me that I didn't experience this with you. I think me, Erin, Emily and Jenny Greiner were living in the Colony at the time. I, like many others, just walked to BYU without turning on the TV. I was in the Wilk walking through the bookstore where it meets the Cougareat. Everyone was standing in the walkways staring at the TV, and I was at first annoyed because I was in a hurry and couldn't get around all the people. Then I saw a picture on the TV of a building smoking. Not knowing what was going on, I kept walking. Then I ran into Dylan VanAtta (of all people) and he filled me in. I got the feeling from his expression of shear horror that this was more than just a smoking building. Then I watched as they showed the second plane crashing into the 2nd tower.
My parents were in Europe at the time, and their account of what happened from being across the world is amazing. They said the subways were absolutely SILENCED as people read their newspapers. My parents' plane was scheduled to come home 2 days later. They said every single person when they flew home cheered and screamed when the plane touched down on American soil in Dallas. Chilling to think about.
andi- i never realized that your parents were in europe at that time. that must have been really scary!
i loved all your comments. it brought tears to my eyes to read them. i hope more people will comment. it's interesting to get everyone else's perspective on it.
I was at BYU, living in the Colony. Liz Kontak and I were asleep and my roommate Michelle came and and woke us up saying she thought a car bomb had exploded in NYC and I should turn on the TV. I casually walked down to the living room and turned on the TV. At the same moment my mother called my cell phone in hysterics. I basically sat there in shock watching the news and listening to my mother cry. I didn't cry at first because it felt to surreal- I just thought it wasn't possible that it was happening. I remember the moment when they realized that people were jumping out of the buildings....I will never forget those images.
My family lives and hour and a half away from the city and we go there all of the time. I was born there. I remember being a little girl and going to the top of one of those towers with my family and stepping out into the window, leaning my head on the glass and looking all the way down to the street. We have so many friends that live there. All I could think was, "where is Dave? where are Bob and Carl? Are they ok? Are they alive?" After the initial shock I couldn't stop crying. I was so devastated.
I walked to campus for my afternoon class and stopped to talk to a friend who was sitting out on his front porch enjoying the weather. He told me that he was not affected by it because it wasn't anywhere near his home state of Washington- I just couldn't believe that he didn't feel the same way that I did.
I had to work that afternoon at Down East Home and I wanted to scream at everyone shopping for their marked down freaking pottery barn furniture... "DONT YOU KNOW WHAT HAS HAPPENED??? DONT YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED TODAY???!!!" I just couldn't believe that people were doing such trivial things on such a horrible day.
I had a knot in my throat all day. I wanted to be with my family. My mother was so upset that I was so far away from her. The whole thing reminded me of how fragile life is and that it can be taken away in seconds. And it made me so grateful for eternal familes.
To this day- even years later - I am still affected in the same way that I was on Sept. 11th. I will never forget that day as long as I live.
emily said... (how do i get my name to show up if i'm anonymous??)
i remember going up to the computer lab in the WILK before my first class, and i hadn't turned on the TV or radio or anything that morning yet. i was logging into my email and started writing my friend colleen when i saw a news ticker or something, i guess i had another window open so maybe it was a headline, and it showed footage of the 1st plane crashing.
i closed out of email and read the story, and then went out to the lobby there to watch TV -- there was the biggest crowd. we all sat there as they told us that the tower had just been hit, and we saw the 2nd plane hit.
i skipped my morning classes (maybe they were cancelled anyway) and just sat in that lobby watching until the towers fell. i remember going home and calling my dad, and i just remember getting a busy signal the whole time. i knew he was okay, but i still wanted to talk to him. so for some reason i called mike bronson...i don't know why exactly, we weren't dating anymore :) but no one else was home and he's super smart, and from my home area, and i was like, 'does this mean we're going to war?' and we chatted a while about it. and i remember going to classes that afternoon -- at least one.
i remember being so confused as to why people would do this, and scared that we were going to be under full attack or something.
em- i do think i remember you telling me you called mike bronson. that was kind of a weird time in my relationship with everyone else- and understandably so- but it still sucked at the time:) it makes me sort of sad that i have no memories of being with you guys at that time. i should have been a better friend:(
oh p.s.
when you comment choose "other" as your identity- then i think you can sign your own name... let me check...
yup- that's how you do it....
I was working in the Special Ed. department and when I walked in that morning the TV was on and everyone was standing there in shock watching the towers fall. It seemed so unreal - like movie special effects! David had been watching on TV while I was home, but I was running late and only knew that one of the towers had been hit by an airplane. We still worked with kids that whole day, but it was really hard to focus on those groups! Now for you young folks - I can remember just as readily what I was doing when President Kennedy was shot and also when Bobby Kennedy was killed. All of these things are milestones, the kind of moments that change not only your own world, but also the lives of all Americans. There was the rainbow of unity that cme after the rain of disaster and horror. I guess the question is can we build on the rainbows and put the disasters in the past. Faith in every footstep, God is in charge.
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