Where I was on 9/11
...house was not working that morning. Classes did not start at St. John’s until 9:00am and it took us forty- five minute to get to school. It was seven thirty so we knew we had to leave. We got onto the subway around seven forty-five and were into Manhattan by eight. From the point that I got off the subway to the moments before that fateful moment the plane hit I can not exactly recall. I just remember being on Church Street, five blocks away from school when I felt the ground beneath me rumble. I watched in horror, as did my brother, as the huge silver eagle dove into the second Trade Center building. My heart sank to my stomach. The look on my brother’s face was the first thing I noticed. I had never seen him look so scared. We both stood there for awhile loosing complete sense of time and watched as the building burned miles above us. Neither one of us said anything to one another we just watched. The people around us did the same. There was nothing to say. What broke the silence was the sound of the fire trucks flashing past us unknowingly plunging into what is now called the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Louie and I walked across the street to Starbucks and got something to drink and stepped back outside watching the building burn. All I could think about were the people trapped in the building and believing everyone would come out of it o.k. Louie asked me mid-way through the questions in my mind, if we should go home, by that time I had made up my mind and figured school was not going to be attended that day. Before I could even answer, the same death wrenching ground shaking moment came once more. Another Plane flew directly above our heads and hit the first Trade Center building. At this point people began to panic and cry. No one knew what was going on. People were screaming. I looked at Louie and said, “We need to call mom.” We got to a pay phone but we could not get through. All lines were busy. We could not get on the subway because the gates were closed. There was no way home. So we sat on the steps of the subway station waiting for a train to come by and pick us up. I was honestly scared. I knew though I could not let Louie see me upset, I am not one to panic and he is, so I figured if I kept calm everything would be o.k. Pieces of the building and plane were all over the street, and police and fire fighters were asking everyone to start walking away from the buildings. Newscasters were everywhere interviewing people who had witnessed the incident. People were just in shock. I had never seen so many people so scared, and upset in my life. I remember once more trying to get a hold of my mom, still no luck. At this point Louie and I had walked about five blocks away from where we were, when the ground began to rumble again. We turned around and found people young and old running away from the buildings. I grabbed my brother’s hand and ran also; not knowing what everyone was running from but knew whatever it was it was bad. Dust began to cover us, People were screaming and I could not see because the dust was to thick. People were yelling, “ The building went down!” Louie and I ran for what seemed like miles, but when it turns out we had only made it four more blocks. No one knew what was going on, and all I could think about was getting over the bridge back into Brooklyn, back home to my family. Louie and I sat in a hotel lobby for awhile, since dust was everywhere. People were running into any building they could just to escape the dust. The hotel staff was passing out water bottles to everyone as we listened to a...