I remember I was sleeping, and the phone kept ringing off the hook, trying it’s hardest to wake me up with its bland mono-tone ring. It was the morning of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 and I was a 21 year old college senior who was just trying my hardest to sleep in before I had to get up to go to my afternoon Thermo Dynamics II class. I had no idea that phone call would probably be one of the most important phone calls of my life, the one that would wake me up to start the most terrifying day I had ever experienced.

I will admit that at first I refused to answer the phone. It was a good 15 feet across the room on my desk, which would require me to get up from my extremely comfortable twin size bed, and I was in no mood to leave that sanctuary. However when the phone rang for the 4th or 5th time I thought it might actually be important so I woke up and stumbled my way over to it. As I pushed the “talk” button I was greeted by the panicked voice of my roommate Justin who was calling me from work. He told me I needed to wake up immediately and turn on the TV. “The World Trade Center has been hit by a plane” he said.





Now you have to understand that my initial thought process upon hearing that a plane had crashed into the WTC was that a little 2 seater, single engine Cessna had crashed into one of the buildings because some idiot didn’t know how to fly. It never even crossed my mind that my roommate was talking about a full size passenger plane, so honestly I didn’t see why he was making such a big deal about this. It wasn’t helping that he wasn’t giving me any specifics. He just kept yelling in my ear that I needed to wake up immediately and turn on the TV. Since I was already up and out of bed I thought I might as well go into the living room and see what all the fuss was about.

When I switched on the TV the images I saw were ones that would be engraved in my mind forever. It was not some small Cessna that had crashed into the WTC. It was a full sized Passenger plane, and it was not just one plane, but 2 planes. The second plane had just hit minutes before I turned on the television and you could hear that the reporters were confused. Before they thought it was just some freak accident, but once the second plane hit they started to assume it was a coordinated attack. Another of my roommates, Josh, walked out of his room right then, and was shocked to see me sitting in the living room in my boxers watching the TV with a look of horror in my eyes. He asked me what was the matter, but he didn’t need to because as soon as he saw the images on the screen he to was in shock.

My roommate and I sat there for about an hour watching the images on the TV, not saying a word to each other. I knew then that I had to get out of the house, so I took a quick shower and immediately headed over to campus. As I got there I remember that as I walked to my building I passed tons of people who looked like they had no idea what had happened. Why would they know? Most of these people were on campus because of early morning classes, and they had not yet heard about the tragedy. As I passed these people I remember wondering what their reaction would be when they found out. Would it be similar to mine? Would they be a similar state of shock?





I eventually made it to the Electrical Engineering building I called home, and went straight to the computer lab. At this early time in the morning it was filled with roughly 30-40 people all trying to finish their homework before classes. As I walked in I asked for everyone’s attention and asked if they had heard what happened to the WTC. Not a single person in the room had. At first I don’t think they believed me, but they were all soon turning their internet browsers to CNN.com to find out if I was telling the truth. I remember that no one was able to get through at first. Too many people across the world were trying to go to the site all at once and it was making it impossible to access it. Eventually though someone in the computer lab got through and soon all 30 people in the lab were huddled behind his computer looking at the shocking images I had already seen.

The next thing that happened is probably the one thing about that day I will never forget. I decided to leave the computer lab and take a walk round campus to calm down a bit. As I was making my way around campus I eventually came to a girl sitting on a bench all alone. Her name was Courtney Griffin and she was a girl I had known for a long time, but didn’t know very well. We had gone to the same middle school, high school, and now the same college, but we weren’t really friends and we never really saw each other. When I saw her on the bench I could see that she knew what had happened, so I decided to sit down beside her. I remember she went to say something to me, but instead she simply collapsed into my arms and started crying. I sat there and held her while she cried for almost 10 minutes, and we never said a word to each other. I mean what was there to say?

Eventually I made my way to class, only to find out the professor had canceled classes. I couldn’t believe it honestly. Classes were being canceled all over school. You have to understand that in college it takes an act of God for classes to be canceled. It simply never happens. Well since I had no class to go to I made my way to the student lounge instead, where there was a 60” projection TV and about 50 students all huddled around it. It was there that I first saw the images of the two towers collapsing. Never again would they dominate over the New York skyline. Never again would our world be the same.





That night me and my roommates went downstairs to my friend Mel’s apartment and watched the news coverage with her and her roommates. I remember that my roommate Bashir was Syrian and a Muslim, and he was really concerned what affect this would have on him since he was from the Middle East. He was angry at the things people were saying on the news about how evil all Muslims must be. I remember my friend Mel crying at seeing the images of people jumping from the windows of the WTC to their deaths, and this girl never cries. I remember calling my parents and making sure they were ok. I remember trying to get in contact with my friend Jenn who lived in New York City to see if she was ok. I remember going to bed that night wondering how the world would continue after an event like this. I remember wondering what tomorrow would bring, and how long it would be before things got back to normal, or if they would ever get back to normal.

I remember the entire day in vivid detail. This is the first time I have ever put down in writing my recollection of that day. I have always wanted to but I never found a reason until now. My story is no more important then anyone else’s, but I think it’s important that we share our stories. I think it’s important that we remember that day. This is my story. What is yours?