20-Somethings, where were you when you first heard the news of 9/11?
Hi everyone.
I don't mean to post something inappropriate, but I'm realizing that today marks a 10-year anniversary of more than the terrible attacks on the US. For me it marks a decade in which I defined "me" for the first time without the influence of others. I was 14 on 09/11/2001, in gym class and wondering what a "World Trade Center" was, besides being in NYC. Today I am 24, live over 1,500 miles from where I grew up and work at a Police department for a college town where most of the freshmen were born after Jurassic Park came out in theaters. I am somewhere I never thought I'd be, and all I can think about today is that gym class, the confusion, the live TV feed of the towers collapsing. Going to Civics class the next day and learning the phrase 'al Qaeda' trying to fly to Salt Lake on a one-way ticket to pick up a new car, only to be searched in such a manner as I'd never expected.
So, 20-somethings. Where were you, what does this 10-year span mean to you? How do you feel it affected/didn't affect your life?
If this is inappropriate to the forum, again I am sorry.
God Bless
I was 11 when it happened..in class..I remember the teacher turning on the tv to watch & we all sat and watched...she locked the doors to..the whole school did & they wouldn't let anyone out of the class rooms for a while...I remember being scared but mostly confused because I didn't quite understand what was really going on.
It happened during my sophmore year of high school. I remember getting to school early and going to the bakery across the street before class. I got a coffee and heard on the radio that it was national 911 day. Then during school we knew something was up but noone told us exactly what happened. A few kids at this NJ school lost parents. Once I got home my family and I were just glued to the TV set for hours. We were just in shock. I remember the TV showing that crazy explosion over and over again. It looked like something out of a movie.
I live in NY as well so this is a big thing for us...
I was 13 and didn't find out until I walked into my house and saw my father watching the news. They wouldn't tell us at school, but we all new something was wrong because the teachers were upset. Kids were getting pulled out of school left and right that day, and we managed to find out that the reason the teachers were upset was "something to do with the city" which freaked a lot of us out because so many of us have family that work in Manhattan...me included.
There were no planes in the sky, which only heightened our fears as I live near an airport so we became accustomed to planes flying over the school. Not hearing any was completely scary.
In the following days I learned of classmates who lost family, and we were all hoping that some would be found alive, to no avail unfortunately.
It was a very scary time, and I had a hard time getting over it as the previous week I had been admiring the twin towers on the NYC skyline.
I'm 28 now, so I was in college when it happened, getting ready for class and watching the news. The moment I most remember is watching the first tower completely collapse in a matter of seconds and knowing that I had just watched hundreds of people die. I also remember how beautiful the weather was that day and how strange it was to be walking around campus on a gorgeous fall day and be surrounded by people who just looked completely stunned and afraid...
9/11 did inspire me to study abroad for a semester the next year, which completely changed my life for the better (if you're reading this and you're still in college, think about studying abroad! You won't regret it!). Still, feeling very sad today as I remember the horror and think about all the families still grieving for the people they lost that day.
I was fourteen and a freshman in high school. Even though I'm American, my family lived in Israel at the time, so it was afternoon for us when the first plane hit the WTC. My father was at work, and he called the house. I picked up, and I could tell something was wrong right away because of the tone of his voice. He just told me to get my mother. I was really scared, and I made this inappropriate joke when my mom got off the phone. I remember saying, "Who died?" and immediately knowing that something was really, really wrong because my mother just started to cry. She explained what was going on, and then my dad kept calling back. It was especially frightening when we got the call about the plane hitting the Pentagon. My father was in the military, so we knew a lot of people who worked there. And it really shook me to think that someone could actually touch the Pentagon.
Anyways, my school shut down for a week because the embassy and the school administration were worried that it would become a target (American international school in Israel ...). I can't really comment on how 9/11 has or has not affected my life because it's just part of the reality that I grew up with. Even though it was really upsetting initially, it just didn't seem that shocking after a few days. After all, I lived in a country where terrorist attacks happened regularly. I think that the strangest thing for me was that I had lived in the countries where the hijackers were primarily from (Saudi Arabia and Tunisia). I guess that's how it affected my life the most personally - people at home were suddenly really interested in hearing about the Middle East, and a lot of people had some really odd misconceptions about the region because their exposure to it was limited to the events surround 9/11.
It's strange to think that it's been ten years now. My thoughts today are with all those who lost a loved one in the attacks and all those who have otherwise been negatively impacted by the events of the day. If any of you are on 3fc, I'm so sorry and please know that you are in the hearts of the rest of us here on the forum.
I am 28 so I was in my freshman year of college... sitting in my dorm room when one of my roommates came in and just said some terrorists had blown up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I thought she was completely full of crap till I got online and started finding out more details.
It was really odd - I didn't know how to feel about it. I was in a little town in Iowa, so there was no sense of danger; it all felt very removed.
I think the Pentagon getting hit had more impact at the time because I didn't realize then what the world trade center was - hundreds of civilians living/working. The Pentagon on the other hand had an implication of the government as a whole being attacked and in danger.
I was 10, sitting in my 5th grade class, when I heard. I remember the secretary coming in and talking to our teacher--I thought nothing of it, just assumed it was staff business. Then my teacher came back in and went to the board, and started drawing a pentagon. He then explained everything that had happened. Being 10 years old, I was kind of scared, but I didn't really grasp the situation. I remember everyone being picked up early from school, except for my sister and I who were picked up 2 hours after school got out--which was normal for me at the time. When I finally got brought to my dad's office, everyone was in the conference room watching footage and I just remember watching the TV for the rest of the day and night.
I was 18 at the time and it was my first year in college. I had a 6am class and usually just get up and go. I didn't know what was going on until I entered my History class and everyone was talking about it. Everyone looked at me like I was dumb when I asked what the big deal about this world trade center was. Little did I know that we have been attacked by terrorists and many people have lost their lives due to some scrutiny act.
Biology class, sophomore year of High School. I remember the principal coming over the PA, and the announcement didn't really sink in until later that day, when I found a classmate of mine had went home- her father was a pilot, and, of course, was part of our sacrifice.
What an emotional day today has been, seeing all of the news, remembering all of the heartache, hearing all the memorial songs.
I'm actually sitting here now watching the history channel on how they built the new memorial.
I was in my 7th grade algebra class and I remember our teacher wouldn't let us watch the news because we "didn't need to be upset" and how much trouble he got into for that.
So 30 minutes later in my homeroom class where they sent all of us immediately I watched the second tower get struck and then the pentagon. I was in shock. I didn't understand. Noone spoke for the most of the day.
My heart still aches for all of those lost and their family, friends, coworkers.
I'm an Australian, so it was late at night when we heard.
I was 10 at the time, and my dad was away and my grandma was staying with us. Mum couldn't sleep, so had the TV on when the headline was that a plane had crashed into the first tower. She woke up my grandma (who has a sister living in the US) and I woke up also, and as we came to the TV, we saw the 2nd plane and the first tower fall. We spent the rest of the night and the early morning in my mum's bed with tea, watching the news reports.
As someone living outside the US, Sept the 11th was also a significant event for us, and I daresay most of the Western world and everyone attached to it. It's hard to comprehend the level of terror those poor people felt watching their own city and their own friends and family's being attacked, but it's definitely a pain and a terror that was and is still felt all around the world.
My heart breaks for all the innocent people who have been killed in terrorist attacks on 9/11 and in the decade following. I can't believe it's been 10 years!
I was 12, and I had come out of school and my Mum had picked me up, which was a bit of luxury since I usually got the bus. As soon as I stepped in she said "The world trade centre has been hit" at first I was confused, then the usual cheery radio station we listened to were reporting the news saying that they had been hit. We are 5 hours ahead here, so it was all happening around the time school was finishing.
When we got home, I was sat watching it on TV, just watching the smoke come out of them. All of a sudden, they started to collapse, I remember just saying "Mum" really loudly and she ran in and just said "oh my god." I felt like I was watching a film...but 10 years on I now truly know what I was witnessing, and it breaks my heart.
I was 18, it was my second day of college, I was taking Television Broadcasting. It was early, we were all just sitting around in class when we heard the news. We turned on all the tv's in all the studios and everyone just sat and watched, I saw the first tower fall, and at the time I didn't really even know about the WTC, I'm from Canada, didn't really know what it was, heard about it, but didn't pay it much notice. As the day went on I realized just how huge the whole thing was.
I was a senior in high school sitting in Government class. We watched the news from our desks in total disbelief as the second plane crashed. I can't believe it's been 10 years!
20-Somethings, where were you when you first heard the news of 9/11?
