10 years ago today... (in Off-topic)

where were you, and what were you thinking?


Myself, I was in biology class, and I couldn't believe it was happening...

I was 16 at the time, no clue that the U.S. was so hated, that someone would fly a plane into two of the biggest buildings on U.S. soil.

I was in Arizona driving to work. When I arrived at the hospital everything was at a stand still. Only real emergencies were done that day.

The rest of the thoughts that day were thank god we had a strong president in the White House that would make those responsible pay.

i was in the children garden.. i was 4 =.=

I was asleep, I had worked a double and had gotten off only a couple hours before.(Still had an obligation to work while I was back my boss was a jerk.)

Soon as it happened I had a ton of people beating down my door. Many had family where it happened and knew I was in Army Aviation Special Tactics.(Welcome Back parties tend to do that....) I had just gotten back from a 6 Month deployment only a week before and was on 30 Day leave.

All I could think about at first was how am I going to be able to console/assure all of these people when I have no real information to give? My next thought was will I be called to my unit to fight or help repair damage?

I was 24 and had no idea how this could have happened with so many military measures and countermeasures in place.

I was watching T.V. News to be exact. Live.

I was 21 and headed into a biology building at college to take a test. The doors were locked and had signs saying "Test canceled due to terrorist attack." A crowd of fellow students were around the doors, and those who had cell phones were crying.

I had a British friend who was flying to D.C. that day. I didn't know which flight she was on, and I didn't hear from her for a couple of days after that. I spent the rest of that day with friends glued to the TV.

I woke up in KS (as I recall it was a Saturday morning) and one tower had been hit. I saw the second one getting hit on the news. I can't believe its been 10 years already.

It was a Tuesday.

http://www.printfree.com/calendar_files/yearly/2001printablecalendar.htm

I was going to work that day and heard the news on the Radio. I thought it was a "War of the Worlds" type of situation, however, I quickly learned otherwise.

In case the reference is lost on some of the younger audience:

War of the Worlds Broadcast in 1938 caused a nationwide panic:

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/warofworlds.htm

I was 11 and got into the only school fight I would never get in trouble for, we were watching it on the news in class and the kid behind me (Patrick Able) started gigvling and saying things like thats what they get, awesome, cool. I got out of my seat and got several hits in before the teacher seperated us and just made me return to my seat.

My biggest problem with his comments, my mom told me we had family that was at the towers and worked at the pentagon ... They didnt make it to the towers and the one that worked at the pentagon was sick. Our family got lucky thay day, others didnt. Even though it wasnt my family it was still sad to see and hear about.

"It was a Tuesday."

Wow. In my mind it felt like a saturday morning. I remember waking up and everything. So much for memory. :)

7th grade English class. Another teacher walked into the class, said nothing, and put the TV on. We sat and watched the coverage for an hour and saw the second plane hit. We then had to continue our day like nothing happened.

i honestly cant remember where i was or what i was doing - i dont know if that makes me lucky or unlucky.

7th grade history class

I was selling pornography to dirty old men. Yes, seriously. The nation was under attack, but none of that stopped my customers from placing Big Black Butts 9 as their priority for the day.

Our manager was in the back keeping up-to-date via radio. Every few minutes he would come out and give me an update. Unfortunately a lot of the early reports were falsified, and I was passing that on to customers buying their porn. The day after I felt like an incredible tool for passing on such erroneous newsbytes such as "the White House and Capitol were also bombed" and "Our President has been assassinated!"

Ha!

I was 14 at the time, sitting in my 9th grade history class. My teacher got a call on the phone and all he said to us was "The twin towers have just been hit." No one in my class knew what was going on at the time and we were let out of school within the hour. I remember going home and watching the news where they kept replaying the video footage of the towers actually falling. It took me a while to fully grasp what had actually happened.

My friends dad actually worked for one of the financial companies in the WTC (I honestly can't recall which one), but for whatever reason he decided to take the day off from work. After that happened he switched careers and his life has never been the same since.

Watching after the first hit thinking,"I should invest in munitions." before going to school telling the teacher to turn on the news, which we didn't, but was on in every class after an hour. Was first surveyed after school by some lackey from the Houston Chronicle and probably didn't make the print since I wasn't the goofball in the crowd. ;p

At a friends house, figured at first it was an accident (I just heard about it), then I watched the news when i got home in what in would consider disbelief. I didn't dive into social pornography at the time and it was a probably a good thing. (Selfevident perhaps, some might use excessive coverage to deal with grief which makes the practice different and its properties would differ too, subtracting the sick fetish to roll around in bad news part)

15 and was located in southern Norway.

By the way,imho, people who got touched by this have needed, and some still need considerations. One particular case might the first responders, just a thought. Since I think there is potential to alleviate suffering and make their lives easier.

Studying. I stopped when I saw the news and just sat there and watched and couldn't quite grasp the situation. It seemed incredibly surreal.

Waking up after sleeping over at my folks place to go get my dog at the airport, she was on one of the last flights in San Jose on that morning.
I woke up in time to see the plane fly into the second tower, shortly afterwards we were driving to the airport to reconnect with a beloved companion I hadn't seen in more than a year.

Today I sat in a room with seventy people of many many ethnicities and backgrounds. We talked about the even and it's effect on us and our lives. Men and women who at the time couldn't have considered a world like the one we have today openly talked about the perspective it would take to commit an act like the one those men did that day. We talked about that had we lived their lives, we'd have come to the same place they did. The act they committed was perfect in their eyes, an abomination in ours. Living in those divided views is all we have.

Today people took a stand all around the world, for all sorts of stuff surrounding the anniversary. Peace, justice, equality, love... I saw men who fought for our country empathizing with the perspective of the terrorists. In that moment, there is no longer a divide, only difference and understanding. I saw a Muslim woman speak out and take a stand for giving life, not taking it, representing herself and her faith by doing something as simple as a blood drive.

Remembrance of events like this are a powerful moment to create understanding, and I hope that all of your take the time to remember not only what happened, but what is possible because if it.

I was at my first computer job I had landed. I cut Photoshop templates into web pages, then wrote code for them, I don't remember if I was still an unpaid intern or not, but either way; It was a sad day.

I took the bus to work, and I was working in one of the really tall skyscrapers in Seattle. It was near the beginning of the first Tech Bubble going bust.

As I got into work, everyone was settling down, and I heard people in the other room making a racket. We all went in the other room and turned on the TV. We watched in horrified suspense as we saw the buildings getting hit. I was scared this kind of attack was possible. The boss sent everybody home, as we were all too distraught to work any ways.

I don't know why it passed through my head, but I remember thinking that I should leave this building, because what if it was a target too?

Anyways, it was a very sad day, I remember watching the news for hours.

It was doubly sad as I remember this event marking the time when our company had to downsize to practically nothing. All our business dried up practically overnight.

My girlfriend woke me up (I was working night shift & had been asleep for about 2 hrs) telling me "a plane hit a building in New York." I didn't believe her (she had a tendency to over-dramatize) but she kept at it so I walked downstairs & watched the news. I saw the smoke issuing from the WTC a thought "How could somebody accidentally hit a building that big?" Then the second plane hit & I realized it was no accident. I couldn't believe it. The next few days were a blur of news & phone calls.

I am not the guy that gets outwardly emotional about things. However, this is one of those things that gets me. Everytime I think about 9/11 it impacts me just as if I was still sitting on that futon watching the news...& in some ways part of me still is.

~WC~