Young Writers Society

God, it doesn't seem all that long ago.....
I was at school all day....then got home soon after the second plane crashed....first thing I heard when I opened the front door was sceaming from the tv, and when I saw the pictures.....
It's so sad, all these people dying for...nothing. Not just in the terror attacks on the UK and US, but those innocent people in Iraq....I'm not saying the war was a bad idea, because clearly Saddam Hussain HAD to be overturned....but the after effects are disgusting...how can anyone behave as so many people are doing?

i was in 2nd grade and i remember my grandma calling my mom to turn on the news. When i heard my mom gasp, i ran into the room and saw planes crashing into a tall building. My mom explained to me what happened and the rest of my day was as normal as any other 2nd graders, not caring.

From then on my elementry school held patriotic pledge things where we honered those who died. It got old though.

its scary how it happened on 9-11 like 911, freaky weird....

I remember that day pretty well. Time does a lot to heal it, but it is still there. It was a normal morning for me. My goal was to get downstairs, that way I could play some video games. I turned on my T.V. to switch it to video games, when I was confronted with the two towers there, just burning. The news media was running footage of the attacks, they showed the same stuff over and over to the point where I can easily recall the images, several years afterwards.

New information came in quickly. 1 plane had the pentagon, two had hit the twin towers, and one had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. I believe one of the towers had already collapsed when I turned on the T.V. There were normally 50,000 people in those buildings, they had no idea how many were actually there at the time. I watched the towers fall over and over, from multiple angles, as the news played the footage over and over.

I would later see some news footage on Spanish Channels showing people jumping out the windows to their deaths from the towers. One after another. I saw footage of muslims dancing in the streets in the middle east, in Egypt and elsewhere. I remember all the news footage, it is imbedded in my memory.

I'm from India, probably one of the furthest places from where the planes crashed into 'The Two Towers' , but maybe you'll like to know how even I reacted. I was 12 at that time. I was reading for my exams in the evening when my mother rushed into the room and announced... I jumped up and caught CNN for the rest of the night, my grammar book lying unattended on my table for the rest of the night.

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*

The Silent Aviator wrote:Now for a summary of what I accidentally deleted...

Seriously.

I have a somewhat ironic tale. Years before the terrorists struck New York, my friend and I were sitting in front of his computer's monitor inside of his large Dallas -suburb house. We were playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 1998.We didn't know how to truly "fly" the planes in the game, so we just screwed around. Being eight-year old kids, we'd crash our planes for no reason except fun.We flew/crashed in big cities often.


I vividly remember giggling with my buddy as I rammed my simmulated airliner into the twin towers...

Eerie, isn't it?

Now for a summary of what I accidentally deleted...

Seriously.

I have a somewhat ironic tale. Years before the terrorists struck New York, my friend and I were sitting in front of his computer's monitor inside of his large Dallas -suburb house. We were playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 1998.We didn't know how to truly "fly" the planes in the game, so we just screwed around. Being eight-year old kids, we'd crash our planes for no reason except fun.We flew/crashed in big cities often.


I vividly remember giggling with my buddy as I rammed my simmulated airliner into the twin towers...

Eerie, isn't it?

Supermal wrote:damit i just wrote two pages on this and accidentally deleted them. {The Silent Aviator}
That must suck (couldn't get the quote to work)

I'm Australian, so like some others I'm not sure if I can really help you, but I'll give it a go anyway.

I'm not sure when it happend our time. It was a Monday morning when I heard, so to us it probably happened some time in Tuesday night ... if that makes sense. It was on the radio in the morning. I didn't really know what was going on, I was 11. Mum told me and my brother and sister that there had been some terrible accident in America. She din't use the word accident, I just couldn't think of a better word to phrase it. She said some people had deliberatly killed themselves and a lot of other people. For some reason I kept thinking there was a train involved. Of course, my brother being my brother, he started a discussion on suicide bombing in the car on the way to school. He always talks and asks questions about stuff. Why the sky is blue (when he was younger) are all politicians idiots ... everything from science to morals has been tackled in that car. So by the time I got to school I actually had a pretty clear idea about the principles of suicide bombing, without actaully knowing what had happened.
Our teacher did tell us the twin towers in America had collapsed ... but I didn't know what the twin towers were so it didn't really help me much. People were talking about it all day. Instead of talking about their lives or what happening on the weekend there were huddles of people discussing what had happend. Well, they talked about the weekend to, but this more.
Either that day, or on a following day, my class actaully behaved resonably intelligently and we even had a spontaneous class discussion about some person who had predicted something that was really vague but could have been a prediction that the twin towers would collapse.

When I got home, I saw it on the news. I thought it was terrible so many people had died. You know, I forgot that it was Americans. The people who died and were affected. They were just people. It had happened to America, the polititcians were American, but the people were just people.

The idea that people had flown those planes into the buildings on purpose was ... well the least strange bit really. I'd grown up with Major Discussions In The Car, and that, I think, has given me a sense of how things are. I'd heard about suicide bombing, and things like that, it had be explained to me the there were people out there who hated America ... and ... I understood that. I didn't and don't agree with it, I think it's terrible, I wish it hadn't happened, it upset me, but I didn't get a huge sense of incomprehension at the idea of it. It made sense, if a sick, twisted form of sense that should never be repeated.

damit i just wrote two pages on this and accidentally deleted them. {The Silent Aviator}
That must suck (couldn't get the quote to work)

damit i just wrote two pages on this and accidentally deleted them.

When I awoke that morning to go to school, I turned on the TV and it was all over the news. I was sort of flabbergasted.
Sometime later that week, perhaps even later that day, all the schools in my town were shut down and we all had to go home because there was a plane that was making an emergency landing. Someone had reported that one of those High jacking alarms could be heard on the ground, but it turned out just to be low fuel.
We were all hoarded outside like in a fire-drill with our classes and had to wait for our parents to arrive. None of the teachers would tell us what was going on, they just kept on telling us it was nothing to worry about, but a student had one of those mini-radio's (who ever thought they'd come in handy, eh?) and we found out. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best quality and some kids started saying that the plane was going to try and land on our roof (eesh ). Kids, eh?
I was so nervous and confused. Everyone was, in light of the recent events.
My mom didn't end up showing until way later because she had been asleep at home at the school hadn't been able to contact her. Finally, her friend, who's daughter went to my school, phoned her and told her about it.
The plane had come in from China, I think. A boy in my class had both his parents on the plane. He had been told what was going on.
Now I live in a very small town where the most kinds of planes we get are float, so when the plane landed, we could all tell. The airport is just on a hill above the town and you can see the fence around it and when the plane arrived, we could see the tail above the trees.
It was such a scary experience and I can't imagine what it would have been like if it were on the same scale as 9/11. I really can't even imagine it.

A friend of mine named Erin--her aunt had a doughnut from the Krispy Kream at the base of the towers every morning, then walked across the street to work. She was just leaving when she heard the most terrible sound she had ever heard. The first plane smashing into the building.

ick.

A diary entry!

It's a little stupid now... I was young, honest! But it was written when I was scared, so please understand the sloppy writing.

September 11, 2001 AD (9/11)

Dear Diary,

I am afraid WWIII has begun.

Today I remember waking up and staying in my warm bed, thinking today was going to be usual.

At around 7:30, I hear Joe knocking on our doors. “Turn on the satellite,” he hisses to Mom and Dad. Joe hurried to Justine’s room and told her that two airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC. I thought he was joking. I turned on the radio, and sure enough even 107.9 talked about it. Even right now at 9:26 PM they are switching to music to talk.

Anyhow, I’m starting to get scared. I go downstairs, and I am confronted by the scenes of the Twin Towers collapsing, the Pentagon in smoke, and the White House being evacuated. I stared at the news in horror for a couple of hours. My mom was a little worried, so she made us breakfast, including crumb cake.

I’m still shaken. The day seemed like a dream, yet it wasn’t. My thoughts were drifting, and I didn’t think of much, yet I know what happened. I am half afraid for myself and family and half sorry for the families and the people died. It’s estimated at 10,000. I think it will be more.

At least there’s one good thing about it; the nation is coming together. Democrats and Republicans are joined together. The people are outraged at what has happened, and the president has vowed revenge. Like Admiral Yamamoto said when Pearl Harbor was bombed, “We have awaken a sleeping giant and filled it with terrible resolve.” History repeats itself, doesn’t it?

Thank God I don’t have anyone I know in those flights and buildings. If I did, I would be a stammering idiot.

So who did this terrible deed? The media says it’s a terrorist attack. I believe it is more than that. It is an organized group that has thought about this for a long time and has the nations backing it up, particularly the Palestinians.

I can’t believe the nerve of those people! They were dancing in the streets when they heard the news.

Many nations have so far offered their condolences. The nations that will support us wholeheartedly if we go to war are: Germany; Italy; England; and France. God bless these nations and look after them!

America is all fired up again. We will do whatever it takes to defeat these cowards. We will show them that God has his eye on us and will always protect us if we are just. They will pay for killing thousands of innocent people. America will make sure of it!

I wrote this in 2003 for something. I also have a couple of diary entries, which I'll probably post on here, just for record's sake.

2003 Memories...
Actually I didn't believe it at first. Griffinkeeper was running around saying something bad had happened to the WWTC and I thought this was ANOTHER one of his practical jokes. He woke me up though, and I groaned and turned on the radio to listen to some music.

I didn't hear any music though. I only heard the radio personalities talking about planes crashing into buildings in hushed, terrified voices that kept breaking up once in a while from emotion.

I was up, and it was obvious that I was not going to sleep at all. So I crept into the family room which had the TV on, very unusual, and I saw the pictures. I must admit I grew sick to my stomach watching the planes, but I had to see it over and over until I realized the truth, we were attacked in a horrible way and that 10,000 innocent people (the figure was later changed to about 3 to 4 thousand as we grew more aware of what really happened) died.

And I was also terrified. My family lives around Seatle and San Francisco. What if they were hit?

The day was a blur. There were no arguments in the house that day, only a subdued silence.

AAAAAaaaaannnnyywwwwaaayyy.... getting back to the topic. I was in 5th grade and in math at the time. None of our class knew, but when the period ended, one of my friends (a gossip queen) was trying to get the news out. She told me, and I was like, "hold on, what the hack are the twin towers?" I knew nothing of them until they were rubble. and then we watched the film coverage in science. I wasn't concerned, so I ignored it. It wasn't until the news reporter said something (I don't 'member what) and it started to sink in.

Wasn't that directed at me? I can't spell either. I'd never get published if I had to stick to typewriters.

Sorry, didn't mean to breach topic. It was stupid, I hope I didn't offend anyone too badly. Its the alaska thing..

And my spelling ablilties are abismal, I know. Thanks for being so subtle.

jennafina wrote:Did you know that more people have died in auto accidents because theyre not flying than died when the plains hit?

For your research, my mom took me into the basement so that my little bro wouldn't hear anything. I asked "Did I do somthing, is somthing bad?" And she said "Yes, there is somthing bad but unless you are not telling me somthing serious, you are in no way conected." I wasn't upset, alaska for some reason doesn't really feal like a part of the states. I didn't even know it was on pourpose till I went to school.

I didn't know you could use a flat piece of land for transportation.

Psst... it's plane...

It is true that plains are in the safer way to travel. It's just that when things go wrong, it usually ends up REAL bad.

Did you know that more people have died in auto accidents because theyre not flying than died when the plains hit?

For your research, my mom took me into the basement so that my little bro wouldn't hear anything. I asked "Did I do somthing, is somthing bad?" And she said "Yes, there is somthing bad but unless you are not telling me somthing serious, you are in no way conected." I wasn't upset, alaska for some reason doesn't really feal like a part of the states. I didn't even know it was on pourpose till I went to school.

I was in the sixth grade, and was still going to school in a town about half and hour away from my hometown. We were on the way to school when my mom called my dad's cell phone and starting ranting about a national emergency.

We pretty much blew her off because she was still manic at that time, but then we turned on the radio to listen to the news.

Everyone at school was really quiet and tense, and there were TV's tuned to the news all over the place. It wasn't until about four days later that I really understood what had happened, because I'd never heard of the Twin Towers, except maybe in passing.

When they were still digging through the rubble for survivors, my dad told me about a group of people that had gotten under a table before the towers collapsed and survived until their air supply ran out and they suffocated to death. I burst into tears because I was scared and horrified. I think that was one of the first times I ever thought about how much hate there was in the world, and it really freaked me out.

I was home sick, watching cartoons or something, maybe it was the history channel? It doesn't really matter. Then my mom called from work and said "Danny, turn on the news." I asker her why and she just said, "You'll see" And then I saw it, (I saw the second building attack real time) and first I was shocked, then angry then sad, then sad AND angry at the same time.

I was in sixth grade. I was sitting in English class I think. My English teacher was married to the art teacher. We were all working quietly on something and then he came in and whispered something to her. She started crying. None of us had any idea what had happened for another thirty minutes or so.

Wow. It's amazing to hear everyone's accounts of what they thought about the attacks. Although I do agree that Jack has a point saying that more sympathy was shown to those who died in the September 11th attacks than the numerous people dying in Africa everyday. It's tough to think about...

Anyway. My experience was less thrilling. My hellhole of a school didn't even TELL us that there was an attack on the Twin Towers because they didn't want to have to deal with hysterical children. -Rolls eyes- I was in eighth grade at the time.

I was having one of my greatest days when "it" happened. I was 6th grade at that time.
I woke up in 5 O'clock and jogged around the town a little. After jogging, I took a shower and grabbed a banana before hopping into my school. Nothing unusual happened. It was so peaceful I fell a sleep by accident and got yelled at by my teacher. We, no wait. Other kids except me went to the lunch; I was held back for sleeping through my teacher's lecture. It was horrible because the lunch ladies were going to serve my favorite food, which I knew because I happened to glance at the menu that they sent us in a mail before grabbing a banana. My friends, faithfully, saved up some chips and shared it with me when they were all returning. They were talking of something. Actually, the whole class was a chaos. I didn't know the reason; well, I didn't care. The teacher bam opened the door and rush to the other side of the classroom to turn on the T.V. After few seconds, whole class saw a plane crashing into two skinny towers and a second one finishing them off. We were horrified. Actually, THEY were horrified. I didn't know what Twin Towers were. I didn't know of it until I was slapped down by my best buddy for laughing at the towers burning down.

I was 8 or 9...and in 3rd grade. Our teacher sat us down in a circle and hopelessly tried to explain to our frenzied, short-attention spans what had happened. Then our principal just let us run amuck on the playground...ooh, goodness. I have to find my journal entry for that day. I WAS SUCH AN IDIOT.

It didn't really hit me until I was reading an issue of Time from around then...about two years ago, in 4th grade.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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.

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*

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.

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*

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.

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 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.

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.