It’s late in the afternoon, about 3:00pm. I’m in Europe, and I’m sitting at my desk at work when I get a strange email from my employer. They’re letting us know that a plane has hit the World Trade Center. I immediately think two things: (1) why does this information qualify for an all-staff email and (2) what are the pilots drinking these days?!?! I continue my work until it is interrupted by a second email. Another plane. Another tower. Hijackers suspected. I freeze. Hijackers? The planes were hijacked? I don’t understand. You mean, somebody is doing this on purpose? I want to know what’s going on but, because I’m at work, I don’t have access to a television. I go to http://www.cnn.com/. Their site has crashed, so I try BBC. Same problem. As the news unfolds and I get a better grasp on what is happening, I can’t help but ask myself: Are we at war? And, if so, with whom? I grab my purse, and I leave the building. I’m going home for the rest of the day.
I spend the evening ( … and the evenings thereafter) crouched in front of my television. It’s hard to watch, but I can’t peel myself away. And, besides, it’s the only thing on. It’s Europe, so my TV has channels from television stations in Germany, the Netherlands, England, and France. Everyone is speaking different languages, but they’re all talking about the same thing. And, it sounds strange to say it but … I wish I was at home. Imagined horrors are often worse than actual horrors. (For example, a son or daughter would rather hear “your mother broke her arm” than “something terrible has happened to your mother.”) Accordingly, I think was harder for me to experience September 11 from abroad than it would have been for me to experience it at home. My friends and family in the US all knew exactly what was happening. They were here. It was their reality. From abroad, I was left to imagine what it was like to be in the US. Is everyone scared? Are they watching this on television over and over like I am? Is everyone carrying on like usual? What’s it like to be at home right now? Is everything okay?
September 11 stories. We all have them. Mine is a story about how it felt to be an American living abroad. I’d share the full story here, but it’s long and complicated. (When I write my book, I’ll share it there.) Of all of the stories that have been told about September 11, the ones that touch me most can be found in this little-known film and these blogs. The film first. Eleven directors, eleven different countries, and eleven different short stories about how they each experience September 11. I like it because I think it fully captures the idea that the lives of many people — not only those in New York — were affected by the events that day in September. Now, the blogs. The site “nyc bloggers” has a list of New York bloggers who posted on and around that day in September. “We all turned to our blogs,” they say, “to write about our experience, our feelings, our anger and our fears and our grief.” Some of the stories are several pages long and unbelievably powerful. Others are simple but meaningful — like this one, for example. So, tell me: What’s your September 11 story? Where were you on this day five years ago? Alternatively, if you don’t want to share your story, tell me about a book, film, poem or other story about September 11 that has caught your eye.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
I had just started my working life, at a Help Desk. Since I worked for a huge Hospital, I couldn’t help but wonder if we could be a “target”. We were told we could go home if we felt the need to do so… but I was living on my own.. friends were it… we just huddled together, watching TV with absolute disbelief that this was actually happening.
When I saw the clips, I thought it was a hollywood movie… it stills hasn’t sunk in, that it is (was) for real :-(
Thanks for inviting us to do this here. I didn’t want to post my story on my own blog since I’m dedicating it to Russ Keene today.
J and I were just getting ready to leave for work and had the Today show on. I’m in the Central time zone and the Today show is delayed an hour here. Suddenly the story they were doing – I don’t remember what ti was – cut to the live feed. A plane had hit the WTC tower. J and I started talking about what a horrible accident it was and how did this happen? How could a plane get that close to the heart of NYC and not have been stopped.
Then the second plane hit.
This was no accident. It was war. Not knowing what else to do, we got in our cars and went to work. I got to my office and my good friend and co-worker, Colleen, was crying at her desk. I comforted her and we sat listening to the reports on the radio together.
Then the plane hit the Pentagon.
I lost it and it was Colleen’s turn to comfort me. Our boss kept asking us for project status reports to try and keep us busy. On our luncch break we went to Super Target to get bottled water, just so we could feel like we were doing something because there wasn’t anything we could really do to help ourselves or anyone else that day. We live in a military town and were afraid for ourselves as well as all the really big and famous cities in this great country.
God willing I will never live through such a horrible day.
I can recount exactly what I was doing when I heard about the planes going into the Tower…I was sitting at work, much like today, in my little cube where I have no windows and pretty much cut off from the outside world. A co-worker came into work and said have you heard about the Towers (first I had to ask what the towers were…not being a New Yorker, I had no idea) and then I just looked at him in disbelief. I have to say when I first heard about it, I thought it was a joke…I mean could that kind of thing really happen in this day and age? Sure enough, though, my co-worker was right (didn’t happen very often) there were bad things happening and the world was changing. We were witnessing history happen in a in your face kind of way. I confirmed this with all the news stories that started pouring in and the people who started getting to work and sharing stories (in those days I worked 6am to 3pm). The rest of the time was a blur between watching coverage and trying to sort out all the thoughts in my head.
I was at work, in the basement, typing away, and my mom called. She works for NBC, and so there are TV’s in every office and room in her building. She called me to tell me a plane had hit the first tower, and I was like, “HUH?…” and we chatted for a few minutes until she said, “Oh my God, another plane just hit the second tower.” My blood ran cold, and she told me she had to go (deal with news of it) and hung up. I walked around my office and told a few people, and we went into my bosses office (who was out East on business – she wasn’t able to come back for days due to cancelled flights) to watch the news on the TV in her office. It was a very quiet, introspective day with little work done.
I remember feeling guilty that night when I went to brush my teeth. Thought about all the people who would never be able to do something as commonplace as putting on shoes, or buying a gallon of milk ever again. And then to think of all the people going through a loss of a loved one (or several)… I recall it being one of those times when even the people who weren’t all that nice to me were more friendly, and my family seemed to rally behind one another more strongly than ever…it was a reminder that nothing is forever and we have to appreciate and enjoy what we have while we have it. Those lessons have stuck with me since that day, and I would never take the tragedy that occurred 5 years ago in vain. Hopefully no one else does, either.
I came home from school and turned on the tv. I checked every channel, the same thing on every one and I sat and watched, completely numb. I rang a friend of mine and we were both near tears. I had to go to work later that night and the whole of the shopping centre was quiet, anyone who came in gave us updates. It was surreal. We’re used to violence in a way over here but to see it happening to a city that is familiar from films and books, New York to me is a paradise and to know that it could be devastated like that, it was heartbreaking. The date kept jumping out at me today. Five years. It’s unbelievable.
Hey,
It was 5 years ago today I started Grad School. It just happened to be the same day as the travesty in New York.
I was in my morning class, hungover from the night before, and our professor came into the classroom in a hurry, blurted out that the towers had been hit, and that no more details were available.
We left class an hour later not knowing the scale of the disaster. I tried all of the websites, and they were all down. So I went to the CBC site, and they had stripped it bare essentials with point by point facts of what had happened.
I left my building at school and headed over to the grad club (graduate students drinking establishment) and sat and probably drank more beer than ever before, but I never even got drunk. I was too numb by it all.
I phoned EVERYONE I knew, even if they weren’t in New York, and talked to every family member I could think of. My dad was supposed to have been travelling, but two days before, his trip got cancelled, which was a good thing.
I remain numb at the significance of the event.
I was a recent college graduate on my way to my first real job when I saw the smoke after the 1st tower. 9/11/01 for me was about trying to locate my sister who worked a block away and to comfort my parents with “updates” because they live abroad. It wasn’t until later that the hugeness of what had taken place sunk in.
I wrote about it in my blog today.
I was back home in Sri Lanka when it hit and I just happened to switch on CNN and saw it. The first plane had already hit. I called my parents upstairs and we were all watching it in shock. Then the next plane hit. I watched the TV the whole night, and then the rest of the following days. The images that really got to me were a) the poor people trapped in the towers jumping off them to avoid the flames and b) the muslims in the middle east dancing in joy in the street. Despite how I joke about what a cold-hearted bitch I am, I could never understand how someone could actually celebrate and dance with joy in the streets because a tragic event that targetted innocent people like this happened.
I know how you feel about being away from home when tragedy unfolds. Tsunami in 05. Complete and utter helplessness.
04 I mean. Darn I’m losing my memory!
I was finishing up a paper for my finance class – due by 2 pm. I was having difficulty finding the right phrase for my paper, so I called a classmate for help. She was already on campus and said “Did you know the WTC is on fire? I told her no, that I didn’t ( I did not have the radio or TV on — trying to concentrate on my paper). She helped me figure out the phrase — I finished up and left for campus.
On the drive in all the news started pouring in over the radio..pouring in and pouring in. I started crying in the car. The commute to school was only 12 miles, but that was the longest in my entire life.
I was scared for my sister, who was living in a large city and worked in a tall building downtown. I could not get thru to her – later I found out they were keeping watch and trying to figure out if they should evacuate –
I went to class (paper in hand) but our professor was focussed on our emotional state – we spent the 90 minutes talking about what was happening and how we felt.
Like most of the world I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I was doing on that day.
God Bless you Dr. C. (my finance professor)
As I was reading everyone’s comments, I remembered something else….
Two of my very close dance buddies were scheduled to be in NY at the Trade Center that day – they were supposed to be there on business. By a quirk of fate the meeting that they were supposed to attend was changed at the very last minute so they did not go.
I wonder how hard is is for them on the anniversary date…. mmm they get a big hug tomorrow!
I was on a plane at O’Hare International Airport (Chicago). I was supposed to fly to Seattle on business that day. We pulled away from the gate, but never got to a runway. The pilot came on and told us, “Due to the happenings in New York, we won’t be flying today. You can claim baggage at carousel 2.” I turned to the lady next to me and said, “It must have been a terrorist bomb. Why else would they cancel all the flights?” It took over an hour to get my checked bag. In the meantime, I heard every story under the sun. The Air Force is shooting down planes in the US. A truck bomb in Dallas. Air Force One is under attack. None true, but all scary. I had a tough time getting home from the airport, too. I managed one good deed for the day, handing a pursepack of Kleenex to a flight attendedant who was crying on the bus home. It must have been about 1 pm, four hours after the attack, that I finally saw some television coverage. As many of you have written, I couldn’t tear myself away. My coworkers were stuck in Seattle and eventually drove home to Chicago. My brother was stuck on the east coast, and “carpooled” back to Chicago with his sister-in-law who was also out east on business. My niece, only three at the time, refused to be left alone in a room. She followed her mother around the house in a funk, although her parents were careful to shield her from any photos or talk of the tragedy. She could sense how desperately sad all of the adults around her were.
What a great idea….god. I remember that so well.
I was living in Hawaii and was in grad school. I had just gotten married to an Army officer stationed there.
We were asleep when the phone rang at 3 am-ish. He answered. It was a friend.
The ex husband turned to me and said “A plane hit the World Trade Center”.
We both knew in an instant that it was an attack….we laid still for a second and then he jumped up and said “we better turn on the tv”..my immediate first thought was “I hope they won’t go to war”.
2 weeks later he was gone to Afghanistan for 16 months.
I spent that day and many days thereafter watching TV, feelind numb..I am not American but i have lived here many years and love this country more than my own. I was worried about my friends in NY, my military family friends…It still is horrific to see the images on tv…it feels like yesterday….
I will never forget that day.
Thank you.
I was at work… or rather, I was in the common area making a cup of tea. Then I noticed that everyone was facing the television, and I joined them and we all stood there watching silently as the towers smoked, then collapsed.
None of us did very much work after that.
Sorry about the post-free day; I’m in the middle of a move. But, don’t worry … I’ll update tomorrow. I can’t leave this Sept 11 post up for another day. Otherwise, you know, that would mean that the terrorists would have won. Nobody wants that, do they? So, now, for your comments …
momok: It *did* seem like movie.
MamaChristy: Yeah, I don’t think any of us should have to deal with another horrible day like that. And by “us”, of course, I mean any of us in the world, not just the US.
History Chic: It seems *everyone* throughout the world was glued to the television that day.
AmyD: You said, “I would never take the tragedy that occurred 5 years ago in vain. Hopefully no one else does, either.” I couldn’t agree more.
Nics: I remember thinking, “Wow, so *this* is what it’s like to see your city burn?” It was sad. We’ve all grown used to seeing Baghdad, Tel Aviv, and other cities burn, but it was really odd to see it New York. Really odd.
Mitch: “Numb” is the perfect word.
distar: I’m on my way to check out your blog now.
Darwin: The jumpers. :(
E: And, I was afraid for Bro because no one could reach her for the entire day. Luckily, she was/is okay.
Pegs: Hmmm … I’ve never asked my sister if her kids, my nephews, remember anything about that day.
Me: Neither will I.
Nics: :)
Jay: I didn’t even stay at either. We all left.
EVERYBODY: Thanks for sharing …
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