Patriot Day 9/11

[Bwelch]

I overslept and missed the bus that day.... I woke up at 8:45. It's weird how I can still remember that. :/

[Woozie]

It seems like that second plane was what really changed everybody's day. If the second plane had never hit, we would have realized what was going on after an investigation or whatever and it wouldn't have been as shocking. On the other hand, if both planes had hit at the same time, we would have known what was going on immediately, but we wouldn't have saw it live on TV.

[Acturus]

I was just waking up, sophomore year of college. I checked AIM away messages and a friend had posted "what the hell some plane hit the WTC"

I turned on the news right as the cameras caught the second plane hitting.

My first class was at 11AM, and it was cancelled. All class that day was cancelled. By 2PM, the campus at UCF seemed deserted. What I remember most was the discussion into the evening about potential secondary targets for further attacks, and that Orlando was in serious danger because of the Mouse of all things. It was scary.

[Lurking Badger]

I was on the commuter train home from uni as I overheard some people talking about "something" that had happened in the US.
I called some friends when I was in town, bought a 12-pack of beer, then spent the rest of the day at a friends place watching the news. Beer felt appropriate, it was all very surreal.

[Rakiel]

I was in week 5 of Basic Training at Leonard Wood, on a rifle range. Walked down to the ammo point to load magazines, and the ammo point NCOIC (a guardsman from New York) was listening intently to the radio. Heard the announcers say the first tower fell.

My drill sergeants told us to keep it quiet while the rest of the company had live ammo, and the first sergeant made the official announcement at lunch.

[Sepukku]

8th Grade US History class. We weren't allowed to watch the footage on TV in school. Our teacher just told us there was an attack and almost started crying. I remember it like it was yesterday, she was elderly and had an injured arm/elbow in a sling. I came home and my parents were sitting on the porch (and I traditionally got home like 2-3 hours before them) waiting for my sister and I and I asked if I could go to the mall and they were puzzled by my question and told me the mall wasn't going to be open.

[Tyramut]

I'm British, first heard about just after 3pm. High school had just finished and was going back to my friends to play FF8 a bit (lol), turned the TV on and breaking news etc.

[Quixon]

High School Economics.

Friend of mine lost her father, a NYC Firefighter, when the buildings collapsed. She visits ground zero every year on 9/11.

He Was A True American Hero.

[Isiolia]

In college, I was in a CS class. People turned on the TV, which was the first I'd seen/heard of it. The professor came in and said it didn't affect us, turned off the TV, and proceeded to teach.

After that I had 20th Century Art across the hall, and the professor for that just said that we obviously weren't going to hold class and dismissed those of us that showed up. Not long after, classes were officially cancelled for the day.

[zoobernut]

It seems like that second plane was what really changed everybody's day. If the second plane had never hit, we would have realized what was going on after an investigation or whatever and it wouldn't have been as shocking. On the other hand, if both planes had hit at the same time, we would have known what was going on immediately, but we wouldn't have saw it live on TV.

This is very true I remember when I first woke up they were saying it was an accident. As soon as the second plane hit all hell broke loose and everyone started freaking out. That is when we realized something was really wrong.

[Feielle]

Sophomore year in College, I'd just transferred to a different school and was heading back from a portfolio review. My mother called me right as I got back to my apartment to say that something terrible had happened. My girlfriend (now fiancée) was still in highschool at the time, and I recall immediately thinking there had been a school shooting in my area back home.

Turned on the TV, but this was well after both planes had hit. I called my friends in Jersey who worked in NYC. One of them could see the towers from his back deck, but he hadn't been told anything yet. I recall telling him to look outside then the phone just going silent for a long time.

[Norelco]

My drill sergeants told us to keep it quiet while the rest of the company had live ammo, and the first sergeant made the official announcement at lunch.

Interesting. Were they worried people would start shooting one another?

[Mistress Stowastiq]

This will sound odd, but my first impressions of the events that took place on 911 were through the mind of my cyborg, elf character and his apathetic point of view on human life and society.
I was on Mirc in a VTM, free form roleplay channel, playing this character. It was within an extensive pub setting. Some one had put it into their dialog and actions very dramatically. It suited the emotionally intense and macabre content that persisted in there, so at first I thought it was part of their normal storyline until people started pming me about it. Serious mind fuck.

I knew today was the anniversary but I did not actually stop to think about it in the context of memories until finding this thread.

For those who are close to families or within one of the many circles of friends and lives who were directly impacted that day, I wish you a peaceful one.

[Correction]

Shit y'all makin me feel old with your 'ninth grade' shit. I was getting ready for work and in the 30 minutes of goof off time I checked Slashdot and the headline was Slashdot | World Trade Towers and Pentagon Attacked and that pretty much fucked up my day. I ran to the TV to check the shit live then woke up both my roommates. The CEO of the company I worked for was in New York but thankfully nowhere near downtown. He could see the towers from his hotel room though and he kept sending us emails. We all went to work and got absolutely nothing done.

[Dimmauk]

I didnt have to work until that Friday, but when I went to work, everyone was still talking about it. I was working at Motorola at the time, and about 80% of the people that worked there were either in the Military or Ex Military, and all they could talk about was how we were now at war.
Then my Boss said that we had to work overtime to produce more GSM stations to send to New York.
There was also talk about a possible investigation involving Motorola radio failures.

It is still kinda surreal when I think back about it.

[Kryssan]

Lesse. I had just finished up my internship at Burlington Laboratories, made my decision to choose nuclear engineering over aeronautical engineering finally during that summer, I was going to go into Fusion and Plasma Sciences at the time; was helping a friend who was also a chemistry teacher clean up my old HS lab since it didn't meet the Fire Marshall code when he took it over and I had nothing better to do at the time since I wasn't allowed to skip grades by my parents and had already finished all of my HS credits and I didn't have any community college classes that day. Ironically, that was the day I attempted to clean up some lab grade potassium and sodium someone had decided to sterilize by putting in regular jars with kerosene as the storage agent. Of course, it didn't go according to plan, and I wound up starting a small fire (yeah, right) and a nice waterspout in the school courtyard. Managed to get it under control without outside assistance, but it was a bit laughable how I screwed that up. Granted, fortunately for me, this chemistry teacher was also the same one who conspired with me to make nitrogen tri-iodide and spread it throughout the school as a prank, so he was cool with my screwup. Made fun of me for a bit though. Came inside to see all the TVs in school turned on to the news and the details regarding the incident. Took all the humour out of my day.

[Dimmauk]

I forgot to mention the GSM stations were going new York to help rescuers locate cell phones.

[Ragnus]

I was in my high school Bio 2 class wondering why the hell it was taking my teacher so long to get there. Then he walked into class with the TV and tuned into the news. We spent the whole class watching footage.

[Elvis]

Junior in high school. I think I was in Chem at the time..teacher rolled out a TV and we watched. I remember going back to my dorm common room and watching Bush's speech. Then our school Headmaster had the student body gather in the chapel. The Dean of Students read his speech (still available on-line at the school's website apparently; I came across it the other day).. I remember my friend and roommate (he was from NYC) crying while we took our moment of silence. The rest of the day is a blur, as are the days following it.

[Norelco]

Good Lord, here we go: Coast Guard confronts boat in secure zone near Pentagon - CNN.com