The after-effects of 9/11

NinjaPoodle · #1 04-11-2002, 03:39 PM

Now that the dust has somewhat settled, how do you feel? I ask because today in my class, my instructor asked us to write about what we were doing when we found out about that day's events. I didn't realize I would get as emotional as I did (I cried). Even though I am a photographer, to this day, I can't look at books or anything with images from that day.

Some good that came out of the events of that day was the fact that my future husband and I got back together because he was close to being a casualty of the Pentegon incident.

How about you? How are you coping? How did it affect you or not affect you??

This question is open to everyone.

Yemaya · #2 04-11-2002, 04:00 PM

The day of the 9-11 attacks I myself was getting ready for the fall convocation. I had one class that day, but my teacher cancelled the class the week before. I was going to get in the shower when a news flash came on....It was on every channel...I was watching a live news cast of New York...I saw the second plane crash into the tower...My face looked like

I was so many emotions that day....most of all scared, because later in the day there was a terrorist threat on the Center for Disease Control here in ATL...

The attacks have really changed my way of thinking and my view on life...I treasure each day like the last and I value my family and friends...On the other hand, it makes me scared because this goes to show that anything can happen to anyone, INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES....-Yemaya-

Yemaya · #3 04-11-2002, 04:01 PM

Sorry my reply is so long....-Yemaya-

RHOyal-Silence · #4 04-11-2002, 04:13 PM

it was really odd how i found out.

i am a teacher and my class along with one other teacher is located outside in small portables. at the end of the day the principal announced that we could leave as soon as our last student left.

i thought that bad weather was coming. i got in my car and i turned on the radio and i was catching bits and pieces of news about an attack. i first thought it was another school shooting.

i ran some errands and made it home about 5pm that day. that is when i turned on the television and found out what had been going on.

i have no radio or television in my classroom and the principal forgot to announce this to me and the other teacher. he went around letting all the staff and faculty know what was going on.

i did not know anyone personally who died or was hurt. however i do realize that many people's lives are forever changed.

TRSimon · #5 04-11-2002, 07:13 PM

Deja Vu... All over again.

I think I have written this before, but I got up (I am on the West Coast) and checked my email like I do every morning. I had over 150 messages, and as I started reading them, I thought it was some weird internet hoax. Then one of my sorors called me about it, and I finally turned the television on. That had to be one of the most horrible things I have seen, and I have seen a LOT.

Anyways, now that it has been seven months, I am trying harder to help and understand other people. I still don't have patience for people who have tried to justify overt racist behavior at airports and other public places with their own fear and ignorance. That sounds too similar to what African-Americans have been going through for the past four hundred years or so.

I don't take people and time for granted like I used to, but I also have a lot less patience for BS, drama and those who are about BS and drama. I pray for them, and treat them with respect, but I have to deal with them from a distance.

TRSimon

I still believe in high quality flaming every now and then... Hee hee.

BlueReign · #6 04-11-2002, 09:49 PM

Oh my, I will never forget that moment. I was outside at recess with my class. Another teacher came out and told me what had happened. A quick thought came to tell everyone to come back inside. As I was trying to gather everyone another teacher started yelling out of a door to come in. At the same time the vice principal was making an announcement for everyone to come in. It was a beautiful day and it was hard to get my 6th graders to come in. I was very afraid that something was going to happen to us. They sensed that I was upset and I scolded them when we got back in about the importance of following directions promptly! We watched the news and then we started to pray! Parents (mostly government employees) were coming in and pulling their kids out.

We had early dismissal and I coudn't wait to get home to my kids. I stayed up all night watching the news. I couldn't sleep. Since then, everytime I see a plane flying low, I think and I pray.

Peaches-n-Cream · #7 04-12-2002, 01:01 AM

My younger sister and I were both in Manhattan at the time. I was near the 59th Street Bridge which connects Manhattan to Queens. She was near the Empire State Building which they thought might be the next target. I was on the phone for over an hour trying to locate my family. My mother works a few blocks from the WTC. Luckily, she didn't have to be in her office until noon so she was at home. My youngest sister, who works from 10 to 6 in midtown, turned on the television to check the weather when she saw what happened. She stayed at home also. I located my family and waited for my sister to arrive so she could get home to Queens. I had never seen anything like the throngs of people that day. They looked like refugees that you see on the news. This didn't look like New York City. I waited for my sister. She looked terrified. As she walked near the United Nations someone screamed out, "They're attacking the U.N.!" People started to run. She could hear a rumble of hundreds of people running. My sister is small and had walked pretty far already so when the stampede started she was certain that she would be trampled. She threw herself up against a building so she wouldn't get crushed. When I finally saw her she was terrified. There was no public transportation that day and for a few days later. I managed to hail a cab for her to take her over the bridge. She walked home from there. By 3:00 the city had become eerily quiet. I spent the next few days paralyzed in shock. Later that night I found out that a neighbor was missing. He had been a firefighter for less than a year and was 23.

I still can't think about that day without feeling like the world was ending around me and I couldn't do a thing. I was about three miles away from the World Trade Center so I wasn't there and didn't see it up close. There are so many people who were directly involved and injured or lost a family member so I feel grateful that my family and friends are safe. Sometimes I feel sad or guilty when I feel that way. My sister feels guilty for taking a cab over the bridge when thousands of people had to walk. That day was pure evil and terror, and I pray that something like it never happens again.

SeriousSigma22 · #8 04-16-2002, 06:13 PM

Sorhor Ninjapoodle,

I must have missed this post because I was out of town, however, I will never forget that day because my home and job are just 15 minutes away from the Pentagon. And over 1500 parents pulled their children out of the school that day (I teach in Fairfax County Public School System and my school has over 3600 students.). My students were actually watching the events unfold right in front of our eyes during most of that morning and afternoon. I was extremely busy trying to keep the students calm to really have time to show any emotions that day. However, we had the next day off on September 12, 2002 and I just felt empty because it was too quite. The news just kept replaying the events that happened in the towers, air, and Pentagon over and over it really was very draining and I could on pray and say thank God that the attackers didn't destroy most or all of the East coast. I don't know how the folks in Israel and Palestine deal with such an explosive situation on a day to day basis.

I continue to reflect on this serious time of turmoil, but at the same time I thank God for sparing the majority of people that the terriost really wanted to destroy.

Finally, this situation has also taught me to be more patient with others and not to take life, my true friendships and relationship with Andrew for granted. Stay safe and blessed!

Serioussigma22

prospectiverushee · #9 04-17-2002, 02:07 AM

The day it happened, I was getting ready for a job interview. I was getting dressed that morning and watching the news. They were reporting about the first tower being hit. I saw the 2nd tower being hit live like everyone else. I didn't hear about the Pentagon till I was on my way home. When I got home, I called my best friend and we watched everything unfoled together.

The thing that stuck out in my mind was a story I say about how a mom had taken her 2 children down to the wall of pictures of people's loved ones. I could not imagine what she could have said that would have comforted her children. The other thing that stuck out in my mind were the children who had a loving parent or 2 drop them off at school that morning and by the end of the day were orphans. I don't know what I would do if something happened like that to me. Since that day, I have thanked God because my mom and grandma had just got finished visiting me about 2 days prior.

Now a days, everytime I see a plane in the sky, I have to stop what I'm doing an watch it till it goes out of sight.