9-11-01

So I was bored and I "googled" myself. I found a lot of stupid stuff and Honor Roll listings etc.. but i also found this comment I posted on Sept. 11th 2001. It took me back to that day. Here is the link if you want to see what I was responding to (and other peoples responses to me).

Sep 11th 2001
ok... being a resident of Manhattan, being an onlooker of this tragedy, and being a witness of the aftermath forces me to respond to messages written. I think the immediate issue here is the health and safety of all the INNOCENT people who were hurt and killed. True the US has done some fucked up shit, but I know the majority of the victims involved in this tragedy had NOTHING to do with it. Its one thing to sit back and watch on t.v., but its quite another to hear the explosions, to see and smell the smoke, to see people break down and cry beside you on the street, and to wonder if you're still in danger. I am living only 30 blocks away.I am LIVING in New York City, and experiencing this first hand, not from the comfort of my living room hundreds of miles away. I am scared out of my mind, and this "anarchist heroism" that some people think is appropriate, is way out of line. People are dead and people are terrified. So I ask that even if you are against the government, just think about how lucky you are. You should be thanking God that youre safe behind your computer screen, and not out here in the midst of reality. Think about how lucky you, and all of us are. Marissa McCullough

Damn. And I didnt post anonymously like most of those kids.

That day was the singularly most terrifying day of my life. The full scale of it didnt even hit me for a long time. New Yorkers put on a brave face and went on with life. But we were damaged. We were scared. Freshman year had just started, I had only lived here for one week and had no close friends yet. I was getting ready for class when the first plane hit. We didnt have a TV in our dorm room- so I didnt even know about it until Mom called me. Since we still didnt know what it meant, everyone went to school like normal. Once at school, the second plane hit- and we got scared. Classes were canceled and I started to make my way back to the dorm. By that time the streets were chaos. All bridges and tunnels to Manhattan were closed and people were stranded. Everyone was running and crying and listening to car radios. It was like a movie scene. Thats when the first tower fell- and we knew thousands of people were dead. I started running back to the dorm- trying frantically to call home but cell phones didnt work. All I could do was wait for news. We could see the billowing towers of smoke from the dorm windows. All you could hear was siren after siren making its way downtown. Later that night, when it was over- we went out on the streets to light candles. The city was silent and the streets empty. You could walk right down the center of Lexington Ave. The stark difference from earlier the day was eerie, and you could smell the burning in the air. .This guys video gives you a sense of what it was like. I didnt cry- and I didnt even see footage of the planes impact for over a year. I avoided the confrontation. A few years later my mom and I went to see a movie- and a preview for one of the movies made about 9-11 came on the screen- and i lost it. I cried and cried. I cried because I was happy to be alive and safe, with my mom beside me to hug me. I was happy it was all over and behind me. I was proud to be a New Yorker