Where were you and what were you doing?

[Tyranus]

Alright boys and girls. I am curious what everyone was doing when 9/11 happened 5 years ago. Then how did it change or effect your life personally.

 

I was sitting in Chapel at a small Bible college in Southwest VA. Someone aproached the stage to whisper in the speakers ear. They anounched that the first plane had hit the tower. At the time I had just gotten out of basic and AIT.(advanced individual training) The room became quiet all I could think about was golly gee! this is war. So one single word came out of my mouth right in the middle of chapel. S@$%! Everyone was looking at me. One month Later I was stationed in Washington DC guarding a gate at NGB National Guard HQ. 1 year after that Kabul.

[Magruter]

Laying in bed, my buddy from Michigan called me and woke me up. "Dude you have to turn on the TV" 5 mins later plane 2 hit the second tower. I didn't leave bed for 14 hours... Skipped class for 2 days, couldn't look anyone in the eye. Very unsettling experience.

 

Moved it here ty.

[Tyranus]

LOL thats where i thought i put it. Thanks mag

[stutters]

living in lake tahoe with 2 good friends. i was just waking up and doing laundry when one roomie came up, told me that a plane hit the tower. we both watched the 2nd hit, then i saw the towers fall from work.

 

it humbled me, completely changed my political perspective, and still sucks the wind out of me anytime i think about it. i also went from being a hard core leftist aclu'er to being comfortable sacrificing certain conveniences in the name of public safety.

[Tyranus]

Oh and thanks for the golly gee too

[shep48]

was woke up at buddies house, got in really late from fly in fishing trip in canada. good thing we came across border when we did.

 

 

I watched united 93 last night, made me very angry.

[JackieChan]

In school

 

They wouldn't tell us what happened either. They tried to keep all secretive.

[Demoner]

I was in my 8th grade english class when the first plane hit and my teacher was informed about something going on but said we should keep going and we will turn the tv on at the last 5 minutes of class. The next class if I am remembering correctly was History and there we talked about what happened and just took the rest of the day nice and easy. The following day after a bomb threat was called in for my school district along with a couple other school districts in the area. School was then cancelled on the 12th. 9/11 has made me more aware to what is going on in the world and follow the new closer.

[MrDuke]

I was at work and I couldn't figure out why the entire internet was bogged down. Rumors spread and we figured it was an accident so we went about our work. Once we pieced together what happened the whole company shut down and we all watched TV in the break room.

 

Anger, sorrow, shock, emptiness.

[Leveller]

I was at work in London, had just finished a training course (have no recollection of any of the training), when people started leaving the room and heading down to reception where CNN was on TV. We got down there whilst everyone was thinking it was an accident, only to see the second plane "impact". At the time we did a lot of work in the investment banking market and several of my colleagues and myself knew people, and had even got people jobs that meant they were in the towers when it all unfolded.

 

I think as everyone above has said, it was a truly unsettling experience. After NY, where was next, were we in London about to suffer something similar etc. Work closed down for the rest of the day and in true English fashion the majority of us went to the pub and watched the continuing coverage on the "big screen" television.

 

No one knew quite how to react, that in itself was as strange to watch as the actual events.

[Vovik]

I was in school. My teacher got a phone call and announced that "Our nation is under attack", then we watched TV for the rest of the class. I was in a little shock as I remember. TVs were turned on everywhere from then on in all the rest of the classes. I remember towers fell down at the time I was in lunchroom. Some people were debating beforehand if they were going to collapse or not. Then, after they collapsed everyone was surprised even those who thought there were going collapse...Then after school I remember everyone going to get gas at the price of $2.00 a gallon or more(which was a huge spike).

[anonymo]

I was just getting back from my early class to have breakfast at my residence with all the new friends I had met just the week before when someone came running into the caf yelling something about "the US is under attack!" (this was in Montreal btw)

 

About 60% of the people I was with at the time were from the US and my good friend's (now, had just met him that morning) father works just down the street from the towers. I basically sat in his room all day while he called everyone he knew in NY...he found out his dad was ok at 7pm that night but it was a tough day to say the least...I can only remember sitting there watching the TV like a hawk (we caught the second plane hit) trying to reassure my friend that everything would be ok...I remember it being extremely surreal...

[Tyranus]

Here is a lil more of how 9/11 changed my life.

 

video # 2 for those who saw # 1 in blah blah blah

 

I am SPC Mcconnell

[Playaa]

I was in class at college. We had just gotten back to class after a break and the teacher said: "The United States has been attacked by another country." and told us all to go home. I drove home and sat in front of my t.v. for hours crying even though I couldn't explain why. I didn't know anyone in the towers, I didn't have any interest in New York at all...but something inside me just knew that I had just watched our nation change...and not knowing whether it would be good or bad.

I honestly don't remember what else happened that day really...I know I went to work, I know I talked about it with people but the entire time before and after is really a blur.

[Xterminator]

I was in my last year of Highschool and i woke up. My usual morning routine was make some breakfast, sit down infront of the tube and watch some tv for a few mins.

 

I turned the tv on and it was the first thing i saw. I believe it was CNN but i thought it was some kinda movie so i switched channels. Every network was running it. I still didnt believe it, when i got to school all my buddies are like "did you see what happened? that's insane". So yeah it was a pretty bad day.

 

I feel sorry for my friend. His b-day is 9/11 and that's what he had to wake up to.

[Metallurgic]

I was a sophmore in High School, and an announcment came over the speaker system informing us about the crash. Oddly, 9/11 has more of an impact on me now than it did back then. I heard a phone conversation between an emergency operator and a man stuck on the 105th floor when it collapsed. It almost made me sick to my stomache. A salute to all the brave rescue workers who died in the line of duty.

[NOFX]

I was sitting in Chapel at a small Bible college in Southwest VA. Someone aproached the stage to whisper in the speakers ear.

 

What town in Southwest Va? Thats where I am from. Hillsville to be exact..

 

Sophmore year of college. I had woken up from a night of heavy drinking around 9:20, stumbled to my 9:30 biology class. Noone in the class had heard what had happend, Some girl we all thought was wack...comes walking in late and annouces to us in the back that the trade centers had been bombed. We all thought she was crazy anyway and noone paid attention to her. My roomate and I then leave class, go to the cafeteria and watch the news and talk about how we are going to go to canada as when they start the draft up.

 

How did I feel when I saw it.......I was sort of amazed at first and couldn't believe they are that crazy, I felt sorry for the people in the towers, but I never felt avengence and to be honest... it didnt change the way I think at all... At the age of 19 I felt if americans had made wiser decisions, it wouldn't have happend to begin with..

[Chief]

A friend who is an air traffic controller and in the air force reserves called after the first plane hit and said the air force had shot down an air plane (the one that crashed in Penn.) and that stuff was happening. I watched the 2nd plane hit and the towers collapse live as I was waiting to teach classes later in the day.

 

This morning I watched the memorial live commemorating the towers collapsing. When the north tower collapse time came, I got a chill. I said a silent prayer and left for work remembering how that day was 5 years ago.

[witt]

I was a senior in high school. I was sitting at a buddy's house (skipping school )and watched everything on CNN.

[it3llig3nc3]

I was very far away when it happened back in Hungary Europe at work. When I checked the regular news site I read I thought it has been hacked when the front page showed the towers in flames (after the first hit). I quickly had to realize that it's not a joke and things are getting even more serious. All the colleagues gathered around a quickly set-up television to watch the broadcast. Most of us knew that we have a sister company in the US and they operate stores in the towers. The company management later announced that no company personnel has been killed since we were not open at that time.

 

As many of you after that we mostly just watched the TV - mostly CNN and as the events got unfolded everybody got really nervous and desperate.

 

Back at home that evening I went into my archives and dug out the photo where I pictured myself front of the towers back in 1996 when I had a vacation there. I have never thought before that day that it will become history so soon...

 

One of the local internet news sites had a correspondent from New York who took his bicycle and went down to the towers reporting events and impressions every 10 minutes...

 

Only years after [in 2003] when I arrived to North America joining the company [who operates our stores in New York] learned the stories of the people here... ...the post 9/11 recession hit this company big time, however everybody was proud of the fact that the firm did not let anybody go [loose job] because of that.

 

One of the most touching reports I read about the event was talking about the "last calls" from the people got stuck in the towers and the hijacked airplanes. It was said that despite the terrorism and anger all was about "love", "friendship" and "remember me". No hate and demanding revenge. Worth to think about.

[Lunk]

I was boarding a plane in Pittsburgh, with my 2 year old daughter(at that time), when they closed the airports. Didn't get to see anything til we made the drive back to my folks house. Since the pittsburgh airport didn't have any TV's near any of the departure gates. I heard about it from my 2 brothers and my sister. Along with my in-laws calling me on my cell phone.

 

Spent an extra week with my folks.

[Kruten]

I remember prettymuch nothing of that day. I was in fourth grade anyway. We wer going to our next class when our teacher told us about the attack and turn on the TV.

[Fatty]

I was teaching. We went into a semi-lockdown.

 

Being the A/V guy, I grabbed a TV, put my kids to work at their seats and set a TV on my desk so they couldn't see it.

 

We entered a more intensive lockdown when we learned that the plane that went down in PA actually was actually overhead. There were fighter planes flying around. Hard to remember exactly the order of everything.

 

When I got home, I snapped a picture of my daughter as a keepsake of sorts for her when she's older.

 

[YoMamma]

I was a senior in high school at the time. My buddy and I had "second period start," so I was in bed when the 1st plane hit. My mom woke me up and told me what happened. I watched the WTC smoking on TV as my buddy came over to pick me up. While driving to school, we listened to radio as we heard the other attacks unfold. I remember hearing the reports in Washington D.C. saying they thought they heard car bombs go off and such after the Pentagon was hit.

 

The most interesting part of that day though was when I arrived at school and got out of my friend's car. Since we live close to O'Hare and all planes were ordered to be grounded, looking up into the sky was just amazing. I had never seen so many planes circling around O'Hare waiting to land in my life. After I got out of school, I noticed another wierd sight: not a single plane in the air. Living next to one of the world's busiest airports, Im used to hearing planes fly overhead every couple minutes, but after 9/11, there was silence in the skies for about a full week.

 

More recently though, if anyone remembered the 'Shoe Bomber,' that event unfolded over my house. I was playing CS that day when I heard a sonic boom. Everything in my house shook, so I ran outside to see what happened. As I looked above, I saw 2 fighter jets flying over my house catching up to the commerical airliner that the shoe bomber was aboard. Thank God that a passanger on that flight managed to stop him for blowing up that plane.

[TheGeek]

I got up in the morning to find my mom and her friend not saying a word when I constantly called them. As I got into the room they told me. The second plane slammed into the 2nd tower as I walked out of the door.

My brother wanted to join the marines or national gaurd or something that day.