7th Anniversary of 9/11

Iknow that this was a horrific experience for the whole country. For me, talking and writing which I do best eases my tension and makes it easier to cope. Please I look forward to the many stories that I hope people would post.

As a native of NYC, I can remember exactly what I was doing that tragic day. I was in Physics class, and I just remember hearing blaring sirens outside. I went to school right on the FDR drive in NY, so there were always cars and trucks passing. However, the sirens never stopped. They kept coming and coming and I knew something had to be terribly wrong. A kid in my class had a handheld radio and he was listening and letting everyone around him hear. They said that the Twin Towers were hit by a plane.

At first, we all thought it was an accident. No on thought it was a terrorist attack, after all what was that. We had not experienced something like that before. Next thing, I heard our loud speaker going off, and the principal had said that school was cancelled. Parents were called, for those whose service could get through. (The Towers were a main hub for cell phone signals and TV). We were told that we had to stay in school until a family member came to pick us up. I lived in the Bronx, and at that time the bridges out of Manhattan were closed to automotive traffic. The trains cancelled for a period of time, and buses took on the job of bringing people out of lower manhattan. I walked behind security and left school.

I knew that I had to get home. I walked and walked and remember seeing streams of people walking up first avenue. Some of the people were covered in ash, but they kept walking; some had their heads down while other were smoking cigaretts. I joined the crowd and went home. My mother wasn't able to come home at the time she normally would. She was a nurse and during this time, any type of medical care provider was needed. Just recentlty, she talked about her experience there and it how it still haunts her.

She told me stories about how she saw people jumping out the windows and ultimately who fell to their deaths. She remembers walking outside the hospital and hearing fighter jets swishing between the buildings, flying really low. We were told that another plan was still in the air and that the jets were looking for it to shoot it out the air. She told me that it felt like it was a movie, and indeed it did.

My school was right across the river from a military base and all I heard was military aircrafts flying low over my head. I did not know what was happening and what could still be up in the air. I knew that I just wanted to be home.

After I got home, just sat with my little sister, brother and stepdad and waited for my mom to get home. No one could get her and she couldn't leave the island of Manhattan, not at that time anyway. She got home late that night and none of us could have imagined what had happened that day.

In the few hours that passed, there was nothing on TV but coverage of the disaster area. Also, the media kept playing footage of the Towers coming down. There was also the time when people were on TV with pictures of their loved ones asking if anyone had seen them. That was the saddest thing I could have seen and it lasted so long. Some people still to this day have recovered the remains of their loved ones. A few days after all this, all I did was cry in my bed.