Where were you on 9/11?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

I was in psycology class. We were discussing the inherent violence of men (no sh!t.) My teacher's husband (my math teacher) came in and made very vague comments, to which we dug into him. He told us about an accident at the WTC. Someone later came in and told us a second had crashed. Towards the end of the class, the principal came on and told us about the two WTC plans as well as the one at the Pentagon.

I left class, saw mLeonard in the hall, and we just looked at each other.

[Pekka]

I was sleeping because I was sick, when my friend stormed at my house. It was strange, I had the tv on and I didn't wake up when it happened. So my friend woke me up and asked me if I knew what had happened. I answered yes and started watching it. I don't know, maybe I was dreaming of it because I had my tv on and heard it in some subconscious level, I don't know. It was unreal to watch it. The day before I was checking out the FBI's most wanted list, Osama being the number one. First time I ever checked that list. Strange. The first thing on my mind was 'Damn, Osama made it big this time'.. I was waiting for numbers in casulties, and I heard a figure of 40 000 first. Then 20 000. It was pretty unreal.

[Thrawn05]

I was sitting in the commons at my collage. I was waiting for my 1pm class (parking is a b!tch, so if you want a spot you need to get there by 7:45am). One of the senors turned the tv on and there was a fireball on. I thought it was some other car chase in LA (if anyone out there has a strong memory, a day or two before 9/11, a truck who's tires ripped off was running around LA, and I thought they were replaying it).

Then I saw it live, the plane crash right into the second one.

IT took about 10 minutes for people to catch on.

Of course the school broke out into verbal violence... it was people like me who wanted to nuke who ever did this and those who think we should sit and talk to them... of course those people were arabs... go figure.

Now we have to take manditory "Tolorence" corses... which are a PC joke.

[Ming]

I was at the office. I went up to get another cup of coffee, and across from our coffee machines is a media center showing feeds from all the different TV networks. (typical for an advertising agency).

I knew something was wrong when all the networks were showing live scenes from New York. Since it was still early, not many people were in the office yet. As time passed, more and more people started gathering to watch the horror... We tried calling our New York Office, but couldn't get through. People were crying and hugging each other. We watched in horror as the plane hit the second tower.

When the second tower fell, we were given instructions to clear the building. The John Hancock Center (the second largest building in Chicago) is across the street from our building. So like most businesses in Chicago that day, we closed down and sent our people home.

[Theseus]

Rockefeller Center.

It was a perfect morning... the sky so blue, and everything seemed haloed.

I was in a meeting, and one of the guys that worked for me rushed in to tell us that a plane had hit the WTC.

We were evacuated... about 10 of us us trooped up to my apartment, and spend the day watching CNN, and using cellphones and email to make sure everyone was OK.

Later on, we tried to go back to the office, to pick up some critical material... the city was surreal.

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
let outrage and grief be expressed in their forums.

I remember it.

[Dauphin]

I'd just got home from an exam.

I saw it on the news and thought it was an article about some volcano eruption (all the dust and smoke blowing everywhere). When I saw it say New York I thought "uh-oh".

I watched the news until the towers collapsed, needless to say I wished they would've stayed up. In addition to saving the lives of those still in the building, it would have meant a lot in psychological terms.

[orange]

I had just finished my 8:00 class and went back to the dorms to visit my girlfriend at the time, when she said "you better come have a look at this"

So I came in and she told me about how the first plane hit, and how shortly after the second plane had hit live. I stayed there and watched for a little bit, backpack still on, standing.....

I eventually went to my 11:00 class, at which point all classes were cancelled so I came home and continued to watch the television, both in the Trabant University Centre halfway between classes and my dorm, and then at home. Such a crowd formed in the TUC to watch this...it was incredible...everyone sort of oozed through the place at a slow speed, staying with one television until it was out of sight, and eventually jumping to the next television as they made their way through the building.

That's when I heard about the plane in Washington and the one in Pennsylvania and became worried for my own family, at least, until I knew where in PA the plane was headed.

I remember thinking the whole time that OBL was somehow behind it...and I said some pretty awful things regarding what we should do to him...

Then around 7 PM (?) I remember watching arial footage from Kabul, the attacks by the Northern Alliance...and that's when I realized just how large a conflict this could turn into, and hoped that our leaders would make the right choices.

[Captain Antilles]

I was right where I am now, 8 blocks south of the WTC site. I was coming up from the cafeteria, and one of my co-workers told me a plane had crashed into the WTC. And I said "No it didn't, I was just there 10 minutes ago and it was fine!" So we went to the other side of our building and looked out, and the first tower was topped off in smoke. But until the 2nd tower was hit, I wasn't even concerned, with all the smoke I couldn't see how big the hole was.

[reismark]

I left for school at 8:00 in the morning - forty-five minutes before the world went to hell. Part of me knew something, *something* was wrong, because traffic seemed to be at a complete and total standstill that morning - buses took extra long to come, moved at a snail's pace - and I didn't get to school until just before class was scheduled to begin (when I normally arrive an hour beforehand).

When I got to the classroom, it was almost entirely empty. The few that were in there said everyone else - including the instructor - were upstairs watching the fire. "What fire?" I thought to myself, and I headed to the (cue ominous music) thirteenth floor, the highest point in the building, to find out what the hell was going on.

When I got up there, everyone was standing around looking out from the windowed promenande. Off in the distance, the towers were smoking like chimneys. My first thought was how surreal it was; how much like a plot in a disaster movie this was. But it quickly proved to be real... not one minute after I arrived upstairs, the South Tower crumpled to the ground.

There were audible gasps and exclamations around the room, and at that point, most people left and went back downstairs. I stayed upstairs (knowing there was no way class was going to go on) and that's when the gravity of the situation began to sink in: This is real. There are real people dying over there. Some group of heartless bastards has cruelly attacked us.

I didn't care who was responsible at the time - all I wanted to do was get home and be with my family. My father was in South Dakota on a business trip and was scheduled to fly home the next day - he ended up having to wait until Friday and drive half the way. I called my mom at work, and (not surprisingly) she was already sprinting over to get me.

I head outside, and find her on the sidewalk - she'd been running up and down the block looking for me for fifteen minutes. We head back to the car, only to find (cue ominous music again) that it won't start - dead battery. We end up waiting two hours for a tow truck guy to come and jump-start the car so we can get home. My brother and sister were safe in school until the afternoon, and my sister was kept largely oblivious to the situation. I don't think I ever hugged them harder when they came home that afternoon.

Here's the thing, folks: Treasure the day, not because of the bad memories that come with it, but use it to give thanks for everything that you have in your life, and I mean *everything* - especially the little things that you take for granted. It can all be taken away from you in a heartbeat...

[JohnT]

I was on my way to work, listening to the Tony Bruno show on Fox Sports Radio. At the time, the big sports story was the possibility of Michael Jordan's return to the NBA and Tony and his sidekick Andrew Siciliano was hamming it up about MJ. Then, Tony says...

"Amazingly CNN broke from it's wall-to-wall Michael Jordan coverage to show us pictures of a building on fire."

Andrew: "Actually, I think that is the World Trade Center in NY. What happened? - there's a huge hole in the side of the building."

And they went on for just a little bit more as I pulled into work. Got out, went into the office and found that everybody else in the office knew. I then called my wife and told her to "Turn on CNN! A plane crashed into the WTC!" She did, just in time to see plane # 2 hit the second building.

We didn't stop work, btw.

[SpencerH]

I was working at home and checked the news and saw that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I assumed it was a small private plane that had lost control and crashed. I turned on my TV and watched the whole thing virtually from the start. I didnt make it to work.

[dunk]

I was at work. We had all decided to take a break and get some morning munchies. Someone who had just arrived at work said that a plane had crashed into the WTC. We all thought it was some accident.

An hour later or so, people were gathered around a TV watching the horror unfold.

People were calling family, speculating as to who the culprits were, etc.

I had thought that some real bad sh1t was going to go down when I heard that a plane had crashed in PA, near Pittsbugh (about 80 miles). I thought, sh1t, Pittsburgh isn't that big and if they're trying to hit it, then we're in some serious trouble.

[DarthVeda]

I had just come back from Calc2 lab at about 8:30 in the morning. I sat down at my computer and my mother messaged me on ICQ that a plane had hit the WTC. I tuned in about a minute before the second plane hit. I can remember seeing the debris and smoke fly and the camera readjusting to the opposite tower.

When that happened I said to my mother over ICQ something to the effect that this is not an accident anymore and that only one man could be to blame: OBL.

Later I almost **** myself when the first tower fell. I noticed all this white crumbly stuff falling off the building and was thinking something was not right. Then it fell and I shot out of my computer seat in disbelief. I can remember thinking oh my god, nobody could have survived that... the tower is gone!

I can clearly recall praying after the first tower that the second would remain standing, but alas, no.

At about 1 in the afternoon I went to GEO lab and we had a little moment of silence before talking about rock formations. Before class, I can remember everybody fixated on a single TV in the hallway tuned to CNN. Nobody ever watches these because they have useless university information. But that day, every person in the hall was silent, watching in an almost trance-like state. It was the Taliban leader claiming zero responsibility for the WTC attack, and I can remember thinking that the day before nobody would have cared who this guy was, but today, he could have been the biggest celebrity in all of the World the way people were watching him.

In my liberal propaganda class (also known as University Course 2001, some lame effective presentations class), we spent the day talking about what this meant for all of us and for the country. Many students talked about how they would gladly give up personal freedoms for a sense of security... I was mortified.

After dinner we were given little American flags to place hanging from our doors (the kind with the wooden stick). From that point on, I've had a flag on my room's door frame (well, aside from the summer, I put it back when I got back up here), and it's still flying there today, in remembrance.

That night most of my hall gathered in a common area to watch Bush's speech and then retire to our rooms. I can remember playing "Proud to be an American" for the first time in a long time that day. I certainly was proud.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Ironic in a way, but LTEC! and I were at home in Tijuana, and she first heard about it on ICQ from Alexander's Horse, so we turned on the TV to CNN, just before the second plane hit.

Oh yes - forgot that.

Actually Hydey and I were playing civ and Hydey told me on icq and then I told LTEC. This was about 10 pm 9/11 Australian time.

Hydey and I kept playing civ even after the third plane hit, which shows we are true addicts

My Aunty's funeral was the following day and my father was writing his remarks. He hardly looked up at the TV either. Life goes on and I don't think we could take it in anyway. I was mostly thinking about my Dad and the funeral. It was a sad day for the family already.

It was very weird being at a big cemetary the next day just as the reality of it all was sinking in.