Young Writers Society

I'm researching where people were and what they were doing during the attacks for a project. Were you at school, work, asleep? How did you find out about it? What was your reaction? Stuff like that. If anyone is willing to tell, I would be very grateful.

I'll start:
I was in 6th grade, 11 years old, and eating lunch in the Crestdale Middle School cafeteria in Charlotte, NC. Because that middle school (and most others) was so uptight about order, we had to eat lunch with the class period we were currently in. I ate with my Algebra class. All the teachers passed the half hour at the corner of one other table, separated from the students by about 5 seats, talking quietly. I wouldn't have known that day was different from any other by the way they were talking, other than how they leaned in and were unusually oblivious to students breaking the rules. At least, I wouldn't have found out anything about the attacks for the entire school day (middle school principles somehow judged 11-14 year olds as too young to understand terrorism) if Mrs. Hill hadn't entered the cafeteria about halfway through lunch. She went to sit with the other teachers. One of them leaned in and told her something, which, in retrospect, is pretty obvious. My friend Kira and I watched as she covered her mouth, looking horrified, and turned and dashed out of the room. Unusual, yes. Enough to raise our suspicions and take our minds off a piece of pepperoni pizza? No.
It continued like that for the remaining 4 hours. Kids were being called practically nonstop to the office for early dismissal. None of us students could figure it out. And the teachers, at least the 6th grade ones, didn't tell us a thing. When the final bell rang and the entire school stampeded the front entrance, I caught up with my friend Michelle, an 8th grader. She was talking to a classmate, discussing what the heck had been going on with today.
"Do you know what happened?" I asked.
"Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York," Michelle's friend informed me. "Our teachers let us watch the news."
Call it naivete, being oblivious, or just young age, but that response made no sense to me. Up until that day, I'd never heard of terrorism; reasonably so, I was confused. "What does a plane crash in New York have to do with us?"
Her friend just shrugged at me. Either she didn't get it either or simply didn't want to take the time to explain.
I carpooled with my neighbor, Justin. Usually his mom would come pick us up. Today, it was both his mother and his father. We barely said anything the car ride home, listening to the radio reports instead. When I got home, my entire family was there. Of course, by then, I'd figured out this "plane crash" was something much more.
I asked my brother if he understood what was happening.
"Sure," he replied. "I've known about it since this morning."
"They told you about it at school?"
"Yeah. The principal just got on the announcements and told everyone we'd been attacked."
Yeah, he went to a high school, but it still wasn't fair that they'd been told and we hadn't. At the end of the day, though I was fully aware of what had happened, I was still 11. So, I guess it was okay that my final thought about the past 24 hours was: Stupid middle schools.


Okay, yours does not have to be that long, mine just kind of turned into a story. Please offer any information if you're willing. Thanks!

I was in fifth grade and I was walking back to my homeroom from P.E. In the hall I heard some shadows of what had gone on. So then I get to my homeroom and the T.V.'s on FOX, and it's talking about the incident. At that moment I had know idea how serious it was or how it would change everything, but, that's all I really remember.

I guess I'm in England, so it might not count as much, but it still shocked me.

I was on my way home from school at the time. At the train station there was a large screen showing advertisements, but suddenly it switched to Sky News...and showed it. I still didn't believe it until I got home and watched the news properly.

My reaction was firstly of shock, then sadness later on.

My dad had gotton up early and put the news on. Soon after, he woke up my mom, who in turn woke up me and my brother. We went to school, and my teachers (all but gym teacher) had it on during class. I was in 7th grade.

I was 10 at that time. We were in class when it happened. Some girls in the year ahead of us interrupted our classroom. They were laughing and talking, and they said to our teacher, "We are watching New York getting bombed. Do you want to watch with us?" I didn't know what they were talking about and assumed that it was some history thing that happened a long time ago, since they weren't being serious about it all. But later, at lunch, someone told me that WE were being attacked by some country right now... and then someone said that we were at war with Canada... which was kind of weird... No one really told us what happened, or I don't remember anyone telling us anything. I didn't know what happened until my mom picked me up after school. I listened to it on the radio in the car and watched it on the television when I got home. I didn't really understand how horrible it was then, not until all the numbers and stories started showing up on the news days and weeks later.

I got up early in the morning to watch TV, the news was on, I saw the twin towers had been decimated. To be honest I didn't care then, and I don't care now *shrugs*

My teacher made the idiot move of putting the idea in my head that the CN (Canadian National) Tower could get hit. My father works right by there.

Shadow Knight wrote:I got up early in the morning to watch TV, the news was on, I saw the twin towers had been decimated. To be honest I didn't care then, and I don't care now *shrugs*

Well i'll forgive you for that because your an ocean away and it concerned Australia in no way.. but you could at least show sympathy to the people, not just the Americans (if you understand what i'm saying), who died that day because of someone else's ill purpose.

Well i'll forgive you for that because your an ocean away and it concerned Australia in no way.. but you could at least show sympathy to the people, not just the Americans (if you understand what i'm saying), who died that day because of someone else's ill purpose.

Nai, other people, not just Americans, died in that terrorism attack.

But, I sometimes agree with SK.

More CHILDREN than that die in Africa each day, yet attacks such as this get more publicity. Do you feel sad about that every day? To be honest, I was more scared of the fact that terrorism could affect anyone, rather than sad that lots of people had died. People die all over the place, yet it is largely ignored.

Nevermind, I can't find the words to make the point I wanted to..

I was in English, either day dreaming or sleeping when it happened and since I'm in England we never got told. I got home dropped my bag on the floor and looked at the T.V. They were showing a replay of one of the planes hitting the tower. I rolled my eyes thinking it was some new Hollywood film and muttered something about always trying to shock people into going to see their films. It wasn't until was halfway up the stairs when my dad said "Did you know there's been a terror attack on America?" He and my mum saw the first tower go down live and they said it was pretty terrifying to watch.

I was going home from school, I cant remember how old I was, and my mum was waiting on me, which was unusual, she grabbed my hand and started dragging me home, telling me to walk faster as something has happened. She told me to turn on the tele as soon as I got in, and when I did, the twin towers were like on every channel then it was that other building that got bombed too, I was standing up staring at the screen. I was quite scared because I didn't want it to happen to me. But really, it was kind of cool

I don't know if you still need people to reply to this, but just in case:

I'm homeschooled, and by some odd twist of fate, I ended up home alone that morning. The first thing I heard about it was one of my neighbors calling on the phone and leaving a message on our answering machine that "this could be it. It could be the end. The apocolypse may be here." That had me freaked.

And then about 10 minutes later my dad called in from work. He told me that I might want to turn on the TV and he'd be home as soon as they released him from work.

I turned on the TV and the first thing I saw was someone jumping off the top of one of the twin towers and then then the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center.

Half an hour later I was sitting in front of the television, barely even watching anymore, simply crying. I barely moved until my dad got home and turned the TV off. We spent the next hour and a half getting my family (all seven of us) together in one room and then we just prayed.

Interesting.. I actually wrote about my experiences on that day. I was 12 and in 7th grade:

11:00 AM Mr. Ramil's class (math) 9/11/01

I'm supposed to be doing math problems right now, but how can I concentrate when I know what happened just a few hours ago? I am writing this to remember the terrible event and to look back on it, and maybe someday to pass it on to someone. Here's what happened:

I woke up, got ready for school, and came downstairs. My mom was watching TV and she had a look on her face that immediately told me something was wrong. She told me to watch. The news was on every channel: New York and Washington D.C. had been attacked by terrorists. A few planes had been hijacked and had purposely rammed into the twin towers in New York. Then another one ran into the Pentagon. The Twin Towers collapsed. I watched the replay of the second one collapsing. Will I ever wake up from this nightmare? But it is not a nightmare, it is real. They fear San Francisco might be next. It also has major, important buildings. All of S.F. is being shut down, but they are still allowing planes to finish their destination. More later.

12:59 PM Mrs. Collins' class (science)

They've closed down every airport. They evacuated the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. My teachers refuse to talk about the incident. Some of the kids are even joking about it! A friend and I are going to try to get the school to donate money and supplies to New York.

~~~

Yeah. That was a really scary day.. Everytime a plane would fly overhead I'd watch it until I couldn't see it anymore, just to make sure it wasn't about to destroy anything. But I remember that watching the replay of the second plane just slicing through the second tower.. That was just unreal. Terrifying. I was so afraid they were going to come after the lab next.. Our lab deals with nuclear bombs and such, so if a plane managed to ram its way through the building...

I still hate thinking about it. Maybe people from other countries don't care as much because it didn't happen to your country. But even though this happened on the other side of the States, we were all terrified that CA would be next with San Francisco and such.

Jack, people in Africa die because of disease and famine and such. There are always murders, of course. But this was a MASS murder. A deliberate attack meant to kill thousands of people. I couldn't read the lists of those who had died or gone missing without crying. I completely agree with Nai. At least show some respect! Just because a terrorist didn't take out anything in London or Sydney or Paris doesn't give you the right to just blow it off.

I feel sorry for those who thought it was cool and didnt feel anything.

I was 13 and in grade 8 when it happened. I was actually taking over a preschool class because a teacher was late. I was the roof of my school and my friend tapped me on the shoulder with a panicked look. I turned around and watched as plane crashed into the WTC. I'll never forget it as I watched the buildings fall. My friend and I just stood there clutching each other in shock and fear. We ran downstairs to the princepals office, my friend told her what happened. I was shaking and totally numb, I really couldnt believe what I had seen. Then I started to cry because my my mom had a doctors appointment there that day and my dad had gone with her. I was sure that both of my parents were dead. You have no idea what its like when you dial their cellphones over and over and no one picks up. My school was dissmissed and i ran home in a cloud of white ash. I stepped through the door and my parents were sitting there in total shock. They had left to the doctor late that day and they were a few blocks away when the towers were hit. Some cell phones werent working in some parts because of the power lines. Our tv was completley fuzzy only a few channels worked. I sat in front of it all day and most of night, watching the horror. I threw up when my friend called and told me a friend of ours had lost her father. I cried so hard, there were so many people that I knew that were missing and dying. If you would only know what New Yorkers felt as the death toll just became higher and higher. We lost so many of our police and firefighters. I heard storys of how people who were trapped called their loved ones to tell them goodbye.

You have to understand that up until that point I had felt secure and safe, I had been happy. That day ripped up my world, i never have felt safe again. I still don't get how this couldve happened to us, it just doesnt make any sense. Every year on Sept. 11 I stay home and watch on tv as they recite the names of all those who have died in this mass terrorist act. I cry every yr, the pain just never seems to go away. When I go down to WTC and I look at the empty space I blink twice, its like now you see it now you dont. I shake my head and I just dont get it. I watch as tourists with their camreas snap pictures all the time smiling and laughing. It gets me upset that they can do that when so many people have died here, it deserves more respect. I feel like they are desercrating it and i cant wait till the memorials go up. I stand ther remembering how I had been in the WTC at rushhour time. I had stood there watching as swirls of thousands of ppl rush by. Everyone rushing, they all have a goal,a purpose, a destination to reach. Now I blink, theres nothing more only empty space. Whenever I see a plane my heart skips a beat it its flying to low. Its not just me, millions of New Yorkers feel it too. We have lost our sense of security and in place we have fear.

I guess you really dont understand of what I had gone through and still are going through. I guess you have to be there or maybe just be a feeling person. I feel when ppl in Africa die, or a tsunami, I felt and I cried. I know what its like to lose ppl that are dear to you.