A Witness

September 11, 2001

My story is simple. I was a sophomore college student, entering my final season as a Division I athlete. I was mentally and verbally abused by the new coach who took over the university's basketball program shortly after my freshman season ended. He tried to make me quit so he could have my scholarship for one of his own. So I dreaded going to individual/group workouts because of this mistreatment.

On September 11th I was scheduled for a group workout at 1:00pm. My stomach was turning the whole morning. I attended my morning class and then returned to my dorm. I turned on the TV and saw the top part of the towers smoking. My stomach turned faster, then dropped to the floor when I heard that people were jumping from the top floors.

Shortly thereafter I received a phone call telling me that my afternoon group workout was cancelled. Yet my stomach still continued turning because it didn't matter that I was fighting for my scholarship anymore--there were people fighting for their lives.
 
Brooklyn

A Participant

September 11, 2001

At the time, I was working in Downtown DC. I had clients dotted all around the White House and OEOB area. My wife ran a Bed and Breakfast about four blocks northwest of the White House.
The day started like any other. Since I didn't have a client until 10am, I was relaxing at home, reading a book. My parents called me, and told me to turn on the TV. It looked like a small plane had hit the WTC. I considered calling my sister-in-law to ask her if she could see what was going on - she lives not too far from the WTC, and was able to see them from her apartment.
I had to leave for work, but asked my wife to keep me informed of what was going on. Throughout the next couple of hours, the second tower was hit, then the Pentagon. The fear was that the White House, or some other important DC site would be attacked. Wild, and, as it turned out, incorrect rumors began circulating. Someone said that a car bomb had gone off in front of the OEOB, another said that there had been a bombing in the Metro. All employees of my company were ordered to evacuate the city and go home. (I live downtown, though, so I couldn't follow both orders at once.)
Later that night, we walked through DuPont circle, just to make sure the world was still there. There were dozens of people there. None were talking. My little boy, two years old at the time, hugged a little girl from a family we'd never met before. Some people cried. Most of us just walked around in shock. None of us could believe that something like that could happen here.

 
MIchael S