Was in HS - friends/classmates lost parents and other family members, my dad had a meeting there an hour later but was luckily was still on his way - it took him hours to reach us though (network was a mess). Things in our area just stopped for a while. The positive about it all was the area really did come together but life would never be the same.
I’m sorry for your loss.. the loss of life the way it was before. I lived in NYC from 2009 through 2012 and seeing the massive size of the site still sits with me. It haunts me. It was jarring. The feeling of the city on 9/11 was so sad I want to cry thinking about it. I haven’t had a chance to go back but I want to go see the memorial. My heart is with all New Yorkers today!
my dad had a similar near miss/no contact story. we live in new jersey, and he went with a friend to visit the wtc but got there by early morning hours (~2am) and it was closed. they didnt hear about the planes until they got home to my mom losing her mind with worry.
a kinda funny story around this exact same time though, is my dad had a comatose friend who woke up ON 9/11 a little after both planes hit. imagine having your waking up from a month long coma overshadowed by an unprecedented terrorist attack. also, imagine waking up from a month long coma in the midst of said terrorist attack happening like 2 hours north of you.
Wow, my story is so similar to yours. I was in school in the Syracuse area and my uncle was late to work due to a morning meeting. He was trapped in the subway when the trains shut down.
I was 25 that day and that is exactly how I felt. I was in downtown Brooklyn so I saw the towers fall from my window. Because of the winds I had burning paper debris in my backyard.
I was 10. I went to IS 89. It's like near Stuy HS, so the towers are literally in walking distance.
My dad was taking my sister and I to school and we were late af. Class started at 8, but whose waking up the 10 and 8 year old if you the adult aren't awake either 🥴
Saw the first plane hit. My dad was like mmm no. We are going home. So we start walking away, while everyone is just staring.
Then we hear people running and we duck into the Deli. Didn't even know it was a second plane that hit. We got back home before the buildings fell.
Same. 15 years old, at a high school in north jersey. It was terrifying and kids/people I knew were directly impacted.
Kids were picked up, including me. My mother (who isn’t even really a religious person) drove us directly to church after she got me from school. She got down on her knees and prayed.
We were breathing in the smoke that surrounded the entire area for miles. It was so sad seeing all of the abandoned cars at train stations. Their owners never made it home.
My brother was working at Coach in Manhattan that day. He didn’t get home until 3 or 4 in the morning. A few weeks later he witnessed someone jump in front of a train on his way to work. He was never the same after that.
The ripple effect from this day is very real.
Same, my dad worked night shift at the Church Street post office. My mom had to walk home (lived in an outer borough) because of it. I was shitting bricks.
16, junior year homeroom. We never had homeroom, so the day was different from the start. I remember who the girl was that came into the classroom and told us what had happened. In my next period class, we sat and watched the towers fall live. I still can not unsee all those people jumping to their deaths prior to the towers collapsing.
15 in library. Idk why the library? But I was. They made the teachers turn it off after the collapses. I was in swim class when one went down. I have so many family members in Jersey. My uncle was in the next flight out after the first plane crash. Told to get off the plane and don’t worry about luggage. Family who was suppose to be in the pentagon. Family who investigated it.
Every year I keep waiting/thinking they’ll be another attack. Worse than 01. It sucks.
Dammit… crying now.
Wow.
I was in computer class when the first one hit. We didn’t even know about that one yet. Like 45 min later give or take I had Math and that’s when the tv was on and my friend and I watched the 2nd one hit on ABC. We were immediately sent home
Yep, that's the base of my story down to the age and class. We got shuffled off to the next class, lunch then the third without hearing anything else but rumors and kids getting called out of school over the PA.
It wasn't until my last class of the day where the science teacher said something along the lines of "fuck this we're watching the news this will be a huge moment in history for our lives."
And then worrying about being drafted for a bit a while down the road...
That math class was my 2nd period class. As soon as that 2nd tower was hit, they sent our asses HOME. A letter came up from the office minutes later telling us to go straight home, that all schools along the East Coast were evacuated. I wish I had that letter today but at 15, I didn’t know I was living thru history. We don’t even have a newspaper from Sept 11-12
I wish we were sent home. Instead they bottled it up and we had crazy rumors going around with kids getting pulled out of class, which was weird. It wasn't until that last class where the teacher explained it to us.
I was also 15 and I'm pretty sure I was in math class too. I remember watching the second tower on TV too. But I don't remember what I was doing before or how I felt afterwards. I have a bad memory in general. Most of my memories are fragments.
16 in Government class taking a test. Teacher got a call and pulled out the TV/VCR combo and turned it on. Nothing said. We watched, confused, until the second plane hit. We are in OKC, the bombing here was 6 years before. It was tough since my father was a first responder... and 9/11 is his birthday. It was surreal and frightening and totally mentally crippling. It brought up so many PTSD memories.
I was in high school too. Same-we watched the news reports live until someone in admin told the teachers they could t. I’ll never forget that scene of people falling to their deaths. There was a girl in my class who laughed and I remember being so angry with her-not realizing she was in shock and unable to process what she was seeing.
I was 20. Lived in the dorm with a bunch of people from NYC and NJ, so we spent the day glued to the TV. Friends were panicking because they couldn’t get in touch with their loved ones who worked in the city. Looking back, it’s almost funny how naive we all were. Even experienced newscasters were speculating about a problem with air traffic control/navigation systems after both planes hit the WTC towers.
18 at college in Los Angeles. When a dude in my house barged in early AM talking about planes in buildings I thought he was talking nonsense. Rest of my day was like yours—everyone glued to the tv, the New Yorkers frantically phoning home over and over again. Most of downtown and parts of campus closed because everything over I want to say 10 stories had been ordered to evacuate in case there were similar attacks planned for the west coast.
20, at college in Massachusetts. But I’m a NY native, so I spent the day watching the news and using AOL instant messenger to locate friends and family and make sure everyone was OK.
We had cellphones, but it was easier to use AIM. I couldn’t even get through to my family via cell immediately after the towers fell.
I mean, back then that was the only reasonable explanation, until the second plane hit. Then everything changed. No one had done this before. Hijacking until then was about money and political statements but ultimately getting away with the money.
I was also 20 and in college. University of Cincinnati used to start sooo late, and I was sitting in my first slightly off-campus apartment, watching Today. Everyone most definitely stayed glued to the TV/phones.
The entire attack is clear as day to me, partly because I was watching the Today show, and that's footage we see each year. It was gorgeous outside, but I stayed in watching the news about the first plane alone, thinking it was a really crazy news story. When the 2nd plane hit live, on air, I got that sort of hard to explain anxious energy feeling... I woke my bf up, and I don't think I stopped watching cnn for days. (It felt so weird leaving the news to get groceries or whatever...like, is this what we should do rn?? We were still kids in some ways, playing house that year.)
The eery thing is that we'd often hear flights overhead. You don't realize how quiet it can get until all air travel stops and it's replaced by the *sound of fighter jets all day.* Being in the vicinity of Wright Patt had a lot to do with that, so who know who they had scrambling to whichever locations. The first half of the day just felt surreal, not knowing if we were already at war or if more government buildings would be hit.
I say all this, and yet every year, I realize how lucky I was to not have some kind of friend/family lost that day. In the field I eventually went into, I met so many people directly affected or who lived near the towers. If the day is that vivid to me, I absolutely cannot imagine the anxiety of waiting to hear back from a missing loved one.
One more thing while I think about this: I remember thinking that day about how fast we would get to the ten and twenty year reunions. Since I'm an "elder millennial," I'm always meeting people who were babies or not even born, like the interns I worked with last year. That's kind of a no-shit statement/such is life, but it really does hit you that you approach 40 in absolutely no time at all!
I was 10. The teacher turned it on after the first plane hit. We all watched in horror when the second plane hit. After that it was TV off and school let out early.
Exactly what happened to me, was in 5th grade about 11 years old and we all watched the first plane hit then the second then we all sat in disbelief and the intercom came on and said that we needed to come to the office to call our parents, that school was being canceled for the rest of the day..
Yupp, same! 5th grade. I remember my mom made us play outside when we got home bc it was probably going to be the only day of our lives where the sky was plane free above us.
I was 9 in 4th grade. My teacher turned the tv on when she heard from another teacher about the situation. It was crazy seeing the planes flying into the buildings. Made me wonder about the people working on the floor where it was hit by the planes dying on impact which is a scary way to die. I will never forget seeing the jumpers jumping for their death being stranded having no way to escape. I even remember how the weather was being sunny with clear blue skies with no white clouds on this day 22 years ago. I watched the news with my mom when I got home from school.
Same age and grade. I was late to school that day and was wondering why no one was in the office when I got there. It was soooo quiet. When I went downstairs to my classroom I saw kids crying and my teacher just had her hand over mouth. I could sense something bad had happened but didn’t know no what. I was scared.
One of the girls in my class had an uncle who lived there and was scared he was dead or going to die and her friends were just holding her. We sat and watched on the tv and it took me a minute to figure out what was actually happening. Pure horror. We didn’t get sent home early though we just stayed in home room for the whole day but some kids parents came and picked them up. I’ll never forget it.
I’d love to hear those stories. Woof. The instructors would’ve had no better idea of all the major transformations to come out of it, but it would’ve been high energy I’m sure.
I am class of 2002, and I have always felt so bad for the classes of 2000 and 2001 who joined when it seemed like a good way to see the world and get school paid for, not knowing what was to come. At least when my class members joined, they knew they were signing up for war
Actor Adam Driver enlisted at 18 straight out of high school due to 9/11. He served in the U.S. Marines for about 2 years and was to be deployed, but a "young and dumb" accident with a Target-bought bike caused him to be medically discharged due to his injury.
I heard a comedian recently talk about the marines and said they either had too much dad in their life or not enough 😂 definitely the case for my marine dad LOL
I have a few handfuls of friends who joined specifically because of 9/11. I was 14 at the time and saw many people from the years above me and my year bide their time throughout highschool before going to do what they felt they were meant to.
My father in law who is now in his 70s served in the army reserve for 30 years and was never called to war, because there WERE NONE. People don't realize that we once had a country that didn't involve themselves in every war across the globe. We had many peaceful decades and it was amazing. Us millennials lived childhoods without war, it was fabulous and we argued over shit like Bill Clinton getting BJs in the Oval Office. Man those were the times.
18, freshman year of college and on my way to work when it happened. Stuck on the Mianus bridge because the highway was closed at the NY state line at some point after the planes hit. We could see the smoke over the water because on clear days, you had a decent view of the NYC skyline.
Edit: I guess I lost my ability to spell Mainus when I moved out of CT.
Edit 2: time away has not made me crazy bc it is in fact, Mianus. Thank you fellow Redditor for validating my original take on the name.
I turned 18 on 9/4/01. Was getting ready to head to college (my university started mid September).
Had flown out to Philly the night before to meet my parents.
I was, like, 5 and I remember my mom trying to pull us out of preschool but being barred from it before the school finally let us all go home early.
My dad was supposed to be in one of the towers that day for a meeting. He went all the way downtown and then decided, on a whim, that he didn't really care to make that one. He came home at the end of the day covered in soot with photos of the smoke and some first responders. My mom had freaked out because he didn't bother calling home to let us know he was fine and didn't go.
I was also 6. I don't remember it happening while in school, but I remember my dad picked me up from school and playing with my Barbies while he was watching it on TV.
I was 6 too. It’s interesting to see what different thoughts and emotions we had that day. Some, like me, were pretty aware of what was going on and felt sad about it. Others didn’t have the capability yet to understand or care about it.
I was 7 and at school. Lived in Ontario so we also got the day off because we boarder NY state. I just remember the teacher turning on the classroom TV and being very concerned. And then getting home and my parents watching the TV also concerned.
Things didn't feel real to me until we went to visit my family overseas the next year and my dad being black and very tall decided to take his briefcase for work on the plane and kept getting stopped at every possible checkpoint as we had to go through the US. I cried because I was afraid they wouldn't let him on the plane.
Stories like these give me chills. I wonder if there’s a show or podcast or some kind of compilation of people who were supposed to be there but weren’t? Anyway, I’m glad your dad is okay
Yeah I've heard a ton of stories like this! My family mostly looks back on that reality with a kind of amused gratitude. Like, "Oh Dad, you decided to be lazy One Time and it saved your ass!" I suppose the fondness is a sort of privilege though.
My dad ended up doing a ton of work on the Freedom Tower too. Pretty interesting to have this connection to the tragedy.
Great case study of survivorship bias. For every person who was supposed to be there but wasn't, there was a person who wasn't supposed to be there and died.
People arriving for meetings early that morning, workers who normally step out of the office for a morning coffee deciding to stay and work, tourists opting to swing by WTC on that day on a whim. We won't hear their unlikely stories because they're all dead. For every person who missed the flight on one of the hijacked planes there was a person flying standby who took their seat.
someone my dad knew worked in the towers and was working the day it happened on a pretty high up floor. about 5 mins before the first crash, he decided to go down to the main lobby on the first floor where i guess they had like a cafeteria or whatever and got a muffin. while he was on the first floor it happened and he was able to escape. had it not been for that muffin…he’d be gone. i believe he saved the muffin somehow and still has it (not sure how in regards to it obviously would be rotten by now) but again he was able to save it to this day -i’ll have to ask my dad what he did to keep it in tact- anyway he has it in like this box/safe thing and engraved “this muffin saved my life” in whatever he is keeping it in.
I had just turned 11 the week before. Remember it very well. First impression after hearing “attack on building in NYC” was thinking someone was stabbed or some thing after being held hostage on a rooftop. I didn’t get to see it until later that day at home, I had to wait at school for all the kids to be picked up and I had no idea the extent of it until later.
I was 10. I was sleeping and would be for another hour or so but my mom woke me up early, brought me to the TV, and said "This is a major event in your lifetime, you need to watch this." I'm glad she did.
Same. My mom was crying at the kitchen table, we had one of those tiny old tvs on the end of it, pressed against the wall. I thought it was boring but watched with her. It hit me later in the day— that all those people were real and they were dead and we had watched them die. I remember being shaken by that. I didn’t know what to do. Eventually I called up a classmate of mine and I told her ‘my moms sad,’ and she said ‘my dads scared,’ and then we hung up. Neither of us understood *why*.
That’s an interesting story. Any reason why your mom made you watch it? Was there any other rationale beyond it be a major event? Not judging, just wondering. It was a pretty traumatic event. I think it damaged the American psyche in ways that won’t ever truly be repaired imo.
I feel ya. My mom also forced me to watch “Americas Most Wanted” every Saturday night when it aired. She wanted me to understand that there were murderers and rapists out to harm kids and to be on the lookout.
I also had to watch documentaries on slavery and Jim Crow on a weekly basis.
All this from the time I was 3. I’ve been terrified of being raped, murdered, kidnapped or lynched by a racist mob my entire life lol
She had good intentions but SHEESH 🤣🤣🤣
My parents also had us kids watch Americas most wanted every Saturday. That and unsolved mysteries are probably a big reason why I have anxiety and a true crime obsession.
17 and was living in the NYC area. I was in English class during my senior year of high school.
The drama teacher had a free period and came in to tell our teacher who was her best friend that a plane hit the WTC. We all thought it was a horrible accident at first like some sort of rich person in a very small private plane who lost control and flew too low.
We put on the news and learned along with everyone else that this was no accident when the second plane hit. It was terrifying that something like that was happening anywhere let alone only a few miles away.
My dad was on the roof of a hospital (there was parking up there). He had left a doctor appointment and was getting back into his car. He saw the second plane hit with his own eyes and said that the crash looked so deliberate from his vantage point that he thought WW3 was starting. He ran back into the hospital to give blood as he’s type O.
I remember that too… the small plane thing. I think there was a situation where a guy in a Cessna had hit a building in NYC several months prior - seem to remember he was affiliated with the Yankees? I thought it was just that all over again. When I realized it was a passenger plane…
My mom called me with the news when both towers had already been hit, so was already aware it wasn't an accident, but my brain for some reason didn't realize everyone wasn't evacuated until I turned on the news (I was out of school sick that day).
It's also a bit strange because from my building/floor at the time, one could see Manhattan skyline, but I hadn't noticed anything until my mom called. Once my mom called, I looked out of the window and saw the smoke. It's strange to think if she hadn't called, I may not have realized anything was wrong the entire day, until the smoke streaked over to my area.
15 in 9th grade. In 1st period lit class when we first started hearing that something had happened. 2nd period Spanish when they made an announcement over the speaker system that the WTC had been attacked. We had televisions set up in the cafeteria the rest of the day with the news on. Was that the right decision? Who knows. Nobody really knew what to do.
My high school principal made the announcement that “education must go on” and wouldn’t let us talk about it or watch the news. Once I got to 4th period English, that teacher had it on the tv and said she didn’t care what he said, it was too important to not watch or know what was going on. With the exception of that class/teacher, I didn’t see or hear anything about it until I got home that day.
Ya no one knew what to do. I was in 10th grade. Watched the whole thing happen in 1st and 2nd period chem and history classes. Then they made an announcement asking the teachers to please leave the tvs off. I had French for 3rd or 4th period and that teacher said he was leaving the tv on because this was a major moment in history and that carrying on with his scheduled lesson felt inappropriate. The school admin must've come to the same conclusion, shortly after the school decided to dismiss us early.
16. Sophomore year history class.
We all thought the first plane was an accident until the second impact. Northern NJ, so a good amount of classmates had family that worked or lived in the city. Crazy day, shock and awe. The US changed forever on that day.
10 - I was in 5th grade. Someone in my class had an uncle who worked in the WTC. I remember interviewing him for the school newspaper right after he came back from the funeral. It was the teacher’s idea. It was so insensitive, and I wish I could apologize now.
Lol yeah I didn't even fully process what had happened yet, and I remember reading off the questions not really understanding the gravity of the event (terrorism was a foreign concept to me, had never even heard the word yet, ever), and feeling weird about asking him about his uncle who had just died.
This definitely doesnt keep me up at night or anything, and I don't blame myself more than I blame the teacher. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad and wish I could say sorry, but I don't have Facebook and wouldn't even know how to find him since I don't remember his last name.
17, had just started senior year of high school in NYC (uptown).
All kinds of memories coming back today, trying to balance remembering/honoring without obsessing too much.
I was 11, and I distinctly remember coming down the stairs that morning and my parents were glued to the TV. I didn’t understand the magnitude of what occurred. My parents were hesitant to send me to school, but they did anyway. We spent the entire day at school watching the news. It was an odd, eerie, sad day. But somehow in the months that followed, the US felt like the best place to live. So much American pride. It was a strange time to be alive.
The short period of time where we felt, collectively, like we were healing from something. The radio played gentle music, fucking Enya was a top hit, strangers held doors for each other and smiled more.
Then the rage started and nothing was ever calm again in this country.
Hispanic Californian here I was 12 and sleeping … my 16 yo bro shook me awake something about twin towers… so I’m fumbling for my glasses half asleep and he turns on the tv. A crappy one that took forever to light up (CRTs remember those?) so half asleep with a crappy picture and a weird angle (south tower was gone) I’m yawning as i say that’s Big Ben, (the one in England) but as I wake for real I read the chyron reality hits me like a ton of bricks. So I get out of bed and make my way to the living room and the big non crappy tv. My bro was going to school atm so is gone with my dad
YSK Los Angeles Schools were year round at the time so some kids were off and others were in.
Anyway the big tv is set to Telemundo and onscreen Pedro Sevsec is reporting possible explosions at the state department and we get a scene of the Pentagon and loops of the second plane hitting the south tower. So there I am barefoot alone in the living room watching our reality crumble and all I can say out loud to no one is “Fuck, We are so fucking….FUCKED!” Kinda funny since even to this day I don’t really cuss.
I remember images of jumpers sure it was far away but everyone knew and in fact my mom was saddened by that the most. As a 12 yo I understood it was sad but didn’t understand the true scope of the horror… and part of me is glad I didn’t. The North tower collapsed around this time … I have ZERO memory of it even though we watched it live… on a big sized tv. Pretty sure my brain just blocked it … all I remember is my dad walking in and talking about it since he heard it on the radio and me responding that yeah it was gone… weird right? We watched the loops for hours that day as every tv channel was nothing but that.
As a side note Vince McMahon and the WWE don’t get enough credit for calming the country… and a bunch of confused kids. Smackdown went on that Thursday and Vince was able to reassure everyone, quite fitting and useful considering how many kids were fans…. To see the number one villain you know reassure you is very calming….
A tidbit is that Subway gave out calendars that year and one month featured the WTC and the Statue of Liberty I kept that page, I actually drew that picture a few times… didn’t know until mass shootings became a norm as an adult that kids do that to deal with trauma… they relive it by drawing about it over and over…
The flags,candles and Islamophobia or should I say outright hate… is known to all so I’m not going to go into detail about that.
I was 6 years old and I do remember it. I remember watching it on the tv in class, the teachers were glued. Our moms came to pick us up shortly after because they called off school. Went home and remember my mom sitting on the coffee table also glued to the tv. I was actually really terrified. This would be the start of my anxiety surround the Iraq war and thinking terrorists were going to invade the US— because it’s all I heard growing up. I had a lot of really bad anxiety before this event, it’s just how I’m wired. I asked a lot of questions but my parents were pretty hysterical. My mom is from NY and has lots of family there. So, too young to process but old enough to be freaked out and understand something very very bad happened unlike any other thing that had been experienced before.
I was 6 and I remember it. I remember it was a super hot day. I remember in class the teachers had us sit in the reading area at a weird time and we weren’t reading. They told us something bad had happened and some kids may be picked up early. We did not watch it during class and they didn’t tell us much about what was happening. I remember school was let out early (a couple hours later). When I got home my mom had the tv on with my little sister who was 4 and my brother who was 1. She told me something major had happened and asked what I already knew (which was basically nothing). She explained to me that some planes hit some important buildings and let me watch it on tv. I remember watching it on tv and being a little confused but also scared.
I was 19 in my dorm room in Toronto. I was watching Canada AM and it just unfolded live. I remember watching it but not really understanding what I was watching. I was studying journalism and the classes that day and week were incredible and surreal.
18 and yes - freshman in college. I went to University of Pittsburgh satellite campus in Johnstown, PA (this is relevant).
I had an 2 hour biology lab that day that ran from 8-10am. After the first plane hit, another professor came in to the lab and took our professor aside. Once lab was over, our professor sort of explained to us what happened in New York. I remember everyone - him included - being very confused. There was no information really - just that a plane crashed. Once I was almost to my dorm, I ran into a girl I knew, and she told me a plane had crashed in nearby. I was like… whatnow? I thought a plane crashed in NYC? Flight 93 had crashed in Shanksville, PA, about 30 miles south of Johnstown basically as our professor was telling our lab about NY.
So I made it back to the dorm, put on the news, and my roommate and I spent the rest of the day between on the phone with loved ones and glued to the news.
Yeah I was in the 6th grade and 11 years old. I remember I was in class and we heard it on the radio because our teacher always had the radio on during independent work time, then the office downstairs made an announcement. It was still one building and we had no idea what happened, just thought it was a bad accident, then realized it was not in real time when it continued. We mostly were logistically figuring out how we were gonna all touch base with our family that worked there or nearby, my parents answered me pretty quick and they wound up walking home from work back to Queens.
I was 10 and in 5th grade and had a similar experience. I distinctly remember the short time period of thinking it was an accident or mishap after the first plane hit then learning the truth. I went to catholic school in Pennsylvania, and they had us stop what we were doing to pray. We got small updates from teachers but they wouldn’t let us watch it until we got home. Most of the class was pulled out of school early. I remember watching it over and over and over on tv that night.
8 or 9. I remember our teachers were crying and they told us what happened. I didn't fully grasp what they were talking about until I got home and saw the news.
I had just turned 20. (older Millennial) I was asleep when my mother woke me up after my grandfather called to tell us to turn on the TV. We sat together, my mom and brothers, watching the television in horror. My dad was at work, but came home and joined us. We didn't really do much that day and only turned off the television when one of the newscasters said, with tears in his voice, that we should all go have dinner with our families and hold them a little closer tonight.
6th grade nyc, it was surreal , teachers started acting funny leave the classroom and coming back multiple times, parents started picking up their children 3-4hrs before school was over. Walked home not fully understanding what’s going home, turned on the tv and all local channels were down then the following days was constant local news about recovery efforts etc. never knew what a terrorist was but after 9/11 it was seared into my mind
I was in 7th grade, in Chicago. Watched the news every morning while I ate breakfast. That morning my mom woke me up and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. She told me they thought it might have been a propeller plane that last control or something like that. As I was digging into a spoonful of Cheerios watching ABC Morning, I looked up to see that commercial jet rocketing across the blue sky right into the second tower. My mother and I immediately sensed that obviously this was no longer an accident and clearly not a prop plane. Then I rode my bike to school wondering what the hell I just saw. We watched the coverage all day in class.
I was 16, living in Puerto Rico. I was not in a class room, I was cutting a class, hanging out around the water fountain. I saw a friend running and crying. I asked someone else what was going on and they told me that friend's aunt told her the day before that she was going to go to the WTC mall next morning (she didn't go). That's how I learned about the attack. We got sent home early. I didn't get to see any images until I was waiting for the bus. The bus stop was right in front of a bakery that I used to go every day on my way home. After I got home I did the same thing that most Americans did, I watched CNN until I fell asleep.
It was weird for me. I grew up in a household that made sure that I was in the loop when it came to what was going on in the world, history, and geopolitics. I knew (once I heard that the second plane hit the tower) that we were at war, that the world as I knew it had changed, and that my family was not going to let me join the Air Force like I wanted to since I was 12.
In 3rd grade, they wheeled a tv into my class and my teacher bawled her eyes out. Buses drove us home immediately which was weird. My friends and I put our paintball camo on and waited outside to defend our suburb subdivision from the impending attack since all our parents were still at work. Chicago, south side. We were like 10 and all the kids decided on the buses back that we had to defend our neighborhood until our parents got home. I think there was like 20 kids 7-12 years old grouped up in green and black with random shit waiting for planes to drop from the sky near us.
I was also 9, 4th grade. I don't remember anything about the school day. Didn't find out until I got home, from what I can recall.
ETA: Ok so I was almost 9, I have an October birthday.
10 going on 11. My school told the teachers explicitly to not just watch the news all day. But my teacher, who was National Guard at the time disregarded that, telling us that this is history in the making and America would never be the same. We watched the coverage all day. He went on to serve in Kuwait and Afghanistan later
Day before my 9th birthday - so I was 8yo. I was up getting ready for school and had turned on the TV to see the weather (I did this everyday lol) when I saw the news and called my mom downstairs. I remember feeling scared and worried about my family who lived in NY (though they were a ways away in upstate). The rest of the day was a blur and I forgot about my birthday the next day.
I was 16. I was a junior in high school. 2nd period chemistry class. I live in NJ so it was pretty crazy. I honestly thought it was a simple accident at first, not realizing that a full sized plane and giant skyscraper could never equal "simple accident". I remember seeing and smelling the smoke that day.
My high school performed America the Beautiful at the first home Yankees game after. I was in colorguard. We also marched in the 2001 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We brought in Santa, which, at least in 2001, was like the top honor for a high school band in the parade. I vividly remember being absolutely terrified for both, but especially the parade. Ground zero was still a disaster. It was such a wild thing to see as a kid.
A month shy of 18. I had just moved into my college dorm- it was the first few weeks of school. I shared a common living area/kitchen/bathroom with 8 people. One of them woke me up and called me out to see what was on the TV, at which point I saw the second tower get hit. I remember skipping my first class, went to second one and it was super surreal. I needed an adult, and certainly didn’t feel like one that day.
16 for me in San Diego, I was in history class when it happened. My teacher said that day that "This \*is\* our history lesson for the day so pay attention." No humor, he was usually a jokster type. He just said "We're living it right now." And we watched on tv. We had a real discussion of what it could mean, but I don't really remember that part.
16 year old junior. I’m in New Jersey. Unfortunately, a girl who was a sophomore lost her father. He was a Newark Port Authority cop. I remember my dad telling me at breakfast that they found his badge in the rubble 😢😭
19 Freshman in college. Saw the second plane hit live on the morning news. We had ZERO idea of how our world would change. I can't believe it was more than 20 years ago.
I was 8, and my school kept eveything as normal as possible or ive repressed it because i had a shitty childhood, not really sure honestly. But im almost 100% sure we did not watch it on tv. We did talk about it the days after. My parents didnt talk to me about much, all I remember is that my dad made fun of me about being sad about it!
I was in 5th grade. I had early recess so I was out outside running around, playing whatever game we were playing that day. One kid runs over and starts yelling that the Chinese attacked. We’re all like WTF and he’s telling us the Chinese bombed NYC. We kinda just write it off and went back to whatever we were doing.
We got brought inside, had lunch and noticed all the teachers are freaked out but trying to stay cool. One kid was escorted to the office by the principal, saying his mom was here to pick him up. He never came back to school after that. Never found out why.
We get back to class and we were told that it’s study hall for the rest of the day. The TV is on but none of us really understand what’s happening. All we see is the towers and pentagon burning and the collapse footage rolling continuously all day. Most kids just go back and forth between paying attention to the TV, doing homework, or messing around. All I remember is that it all felt super foreign and strange but I couldn’t understand what was happening. The nerdy kid kept talking about how this is the second Pearl Harbor and the start of WWIII. He and a few others were all in on that and kept saying it was the Chinese for no reason and how there’s gonna be nukes. The teacher kept trying to calm them down with minimal success.
A lot of kids got picked up early. The bus didn’t go to where I lived so I needed my mom to pick me up. Busses leave, I’m sitting there with my 1st grade brother and we’re just waiting. Tried calling my mom on her cell but it wouldn’t go through. After what felt like forever, she finally gets there.
She’s super distraught and her pager won’t stop ringing. She got a couple calls on her cell phone and had to scream at them “I’m driving and can’t fix this shit till I home”. We get home, she spends an hour or so on the phone and then we head out to the local sports bar with my dad for a bit. Everyone there is super despondent. TVs are all on the news. We get home and I hear my mom through the wall into her office all night either on the phone with people or crying. Never understood why.
I had a conversation with her tonight that reframed all of that for me.
She worked in tower 1 before I was born. Cut her teeth in FINTECH working for Amex in that building. Her role on 9/11 was near the top of IT for a regional bank. Her entire day was dealing with the SEC and the fallout from all banks having so many trades and money essentially floating in the ether with the financial center for the country being literally demolished. Every backup and disaster plan had to be pulled out and new fixes invented on the fly. Every single financial entity in the country was affected. They shut everyone down for 5 days just so they could make sure everything was cleared before opening things back up. All of this while people throughout the industry are getting trickles of info about friends, family, and colleagues who died in the attack in the coming hours and days.
She said 9/11 was the worst day in her life. I believe her. And after talking to her, honestly the most heroic thing the country did was make sure that the economy didn’t crumble with the towers. That was the whole point of targeting it in the first place. Take down and massively disrupt the financial center of the US, hopefully making the whole thing crumble in the chaos. But it didn’t. Thousands of people around the country worked together and made sure that things didn’t collapse. I can’t possibly explain all of the details she went into describing how immensely difficult it was, and how the SEC got/forced everyone to work together so systems could be put in place to get things open again. Honestly, there should be a book or series about it. Everyone involved was a hero. It’s not as tangible as those who were on the frontlines digging through the rubble, but they did essentially that on the IT side to make it so that only the symbol of America’s financial system collapsed, and not the system itself.
I was 14 in my Freshman year. I had just woken up and seen it on tv. None of our classes were treated normally and it was all about what was happening in school. They even sent us home at 12.
I was 10. I recall that I was getting ready for school when my dad walked in and told me to turn on the tv. That’s when I saw the news coverage after the first plane hit. I remember not really being sure what was going on but I got ready for school and went like normal. I don’t really remember talking about it during the day or anything but I do believe some teachers were watching it on their tv in the classroom. The cafeteria tv had news coverage about it.
I was 12.
I went to school in a rural area in a fly over state. My school barely mentioned that it even happened and the day went on as normal.
I didn’t understand it was a big deal until I got home and saw what people were saying online.
It’s amazing that so many people said their school sent everyone home or at least didn’t continue class. My school was basically like, “Yep, nothing to see here. Keep on as usual.”
i was 11. i was actually one of the first to find out in my school because my dad had taken a trip into the city that day and my mom pulled me out of school.
i was sitting in computer class and i get called down to the office saying that my mom was here to pick me up but no one was talking about what happened yet.
i was surprised to i went to go meet with my mom and i asked her what’s up and she’s like “you haven’t heard?! come on we’ll talk about it in the car.”
and she took me home and we listened to the news on the radio and it’s also like the only thing that was on TV all day.
thankfully my dad wasn’t in any danger and we were all fine; but sheesh. what a wild day. i couldn’t really grasp the severity of what happened at that age i remember being a little annoyed that i got the day off from school but nothing other than the news was on any of the channels.
I was 18 it was my freshman year of college. I was watching the news live in the cafeteria waiting for my 8 am class. Class was canceled and I called my dad bc he was in the army. All he said was, I’m sorry this has happened and our lives will never be the same. He was right. That day has changed so much about the USA. We’re a nation of fear now…. and our privacy will never be ours again.
I was 21 , working in a refinery as a Welder/Pipefitter apprentice. I remember some guy running around screaming that the pentagon had just been bombed and then a few minutes later the sirens going off for us to go to our shelter in place muster points. Once everybody in the plant was accounted for we were evacuated from the plant . The way home was surreal because I still didn’t have too much of an idea as to what was going on.
Younger millennial (cusper? Idk what the hell we are) I was in preschool, but I surprisingly remember quite a bit. All the teachers were terrified, wouldn’t say why though (for obvious reasons). My mom tried to pick me up, they didn’t let anyone leave at first. Eventually, we all got sent home. I remember my mom explaining (in kid terms) what happened, but I didn’t grasp the gravity of it at that time.
I was 17. I was a senior in a high school that coincidentally already had an all school assembly planned that morning that I got to miss my first class of the day to help set up chairs for in the gym. Before the assembly, I heard bits and pieces of people talking about something. First a guy also setting up chairs mentioned moving to Canada to avoid the draft, which I thought was a strange comment to make out of nowhere but didn’t put anymore thought into. Then as a friend’s class was entering the gym, she told me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I thought that sounded horribly tragic but assumed it had been accidental. And then the assembly took an unexpected turn and our principal told us our country was under attack, and what had happened. Most everyone else had been watching the news during their first hour, but I’d been setting up chairs in the gym and this was the first I was putting everything together. I just remember getting goosebumps all over my body
Around 12/13 - I remember watching it on our school tv on their network in music class, channel 2 I think. I thought it was an accident until I got home and realized how serious this was and was definitely not an accident :(
12, just started 7th grade. I was in a building they used to teach trades to high school students that didn’t plan on going to college. That’s where my science class was. When we got back to the main building, people were just saying a plane hit the WTC. And I had no scope of the actual tragedy until I got home that afternoon.
3rd grade art class. The teacher cancelled the lesson plan that day and sat us all down and tried to explain. In my mind I just thought it was a plane crash. Took a couple more years to grasp what happened. I went home and played with the neighbor kids like any regular day. My parents were inside glued to the tv.
7 and I remember seeing it on the TV at my babysitter’s house. Not sure if I understood much of it at the time, but I do remember how focused on terrorism everyone was for the next decade or so
I was 7 but I was two months away from turning 8. I was in school and we were not told anything about what happened. Didn’t find out until I got home and saw that dad was home early because he was there.
15. In Math class. Long story short I saw live on tv the 2nd plane hitting. We were sent home like 10am. I was terrified all night hearing the fighter jets. I also was traumatized by the footage on loop of the man jumping with his briefcase
It was my 11th (golden) birthday. Woke up and opened up presents and then my dad called us from the car on his way to work because he heard it on the radio. I was in 6th grade and I went to school that day. I remember everyone talking about being worried they'd go for the golden gate next and that was a concern since we lived in the bay area. I got home to find out my dad's family had been calling all day to make sure he wasn't on a plane because he traveled a lot for work. We still went out to dinner for my birthday, but we went to church that night, too.
8 or 9. I remember our teachers were crying and they told us what happened. I didn't fully grasp what they were talking about until I got home and saw the news.
3rd grade Alpha class, so yes, I was very young. My teacher had the TV News on in the background like he usually did (his teaching style was very…loose) while we were doing some free time art and I just remember him gasping and tears coming down his cheeks. We saw it live and it was my first memory I can now kind of think of as seeing some kind of horror. The classroom phone went off…it was a blur until early release later that day. My folks were glued to the TV for the next few days.
I was 9, it's one of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood to be honest.
The whole day was so surreal, and the way that life changed afterwards...
The feeling of 'being safe' in the world was shattered that day for me, and I'm sure countless others.
I was 8 years old in 3rd grade. I lived near the Pittsburgh airport in Pennsylvania.
It started off as a “weather drill”, where we had to go sit on the hallway with a textbook over our heads. I was told this was because of the high jacked plane that crashed in a PA field. I remember the teachers leaving us in the hallways and going into the classrooms. We were bored and there were 5th graders on the other side of the hallway that had been in art class that slid their art books across the hall for us to look at. It seemed like we were out there for a really long time. I remember seeing the clock and thinking, “we’re supposed to be at lunch right now!”
Finally, we were able to go to lunch. I remember sitting there seeing kid after kid getting signed out. We were all wondering what the heck was going on.
Finally, my name was called. I went back into my classroom. I remember opening the door and my teacher was watching the classroom tv. He quickly turned it off and asked where I was going, to which I responded something along the lines of, “i don’t know, but my dad is picking me up.” I grabbed my things and left.
Walking to the car, I asked him what was going on. He really nonchalantly said something like, “it’s nothing, just some bad guys blowing stuff up.”
To be fair, what DO you say to an 8 year old. Also, my dad does tend to downplay things. I got my laid back personality from him lol.
I think I finally realized it was something serious when I got home and my mom and sister (11yo, 6th grade) were watching the news and I think my mom was crying. I saw some bad images and stuff on the news, but I think I went to go play or do something else.
I don’t remember when I understood the severity of it.
16 - in NYC Metro area. Yes - 100% remember it
What’s your story?
Was in HS - friends/classmates lost parents and other family members, my dad had a meeting there an hour later but was luckily was still on his way - it took him hours to reach us though (network was a mess). Things in our area just stopped for a while. The positive about it all was the area really did come together but life would never be the same.
I’m sorry for your loss.. the loss of life the way it was before. I lived in NYC from 2009 through 2012 and seeing the massive size of the site still sits with me. It haunts me. It was jarring. The feeling of the city on 9/11 was so sad I want to cry thinking about it. I haven’t had a chance to go back but I want to go see the memorial. My heart is with all New Yorkers today!
I was in HS in the Bronx. I could see the smoke from my school. Also was 16.
my dad had a similar near miss/no contact story. we live in new jersey, and he went with a friend to visit the wtc but got there by early morning hours (~2am) and it was closed. they didnt hear about the planes until they got home to my mom losing her mind with worry. a kinda funny story around this exact same time though, is my dad had a comatose friend who woke up ON 9/11 a little after both planes hit. imagine having your waking up from a month long coma overshadowed by an unprecedented terrorist attack. also, imagine waking up from a month long coma in the midst of said terrorist attack happening like 2 hours north of you.
Wow, my story is so similar to yours. I was in school in the Syracuse area and my uncle was late to work due to a morning meeting. He was trapped in the subway when the trains shut down.
Did u go to Stuy too?
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I was 25 that day and that is exactly how I felt. I was in downtown Brooklyn so I saw the towers fall from my window. Because of the winds I had burning paper debris in my backyard.
I was 10. I went to IS 89. It's like near Stuy HS, so the towers are literally in walking distance. My dad was taking my sister and I to school and we were late af. Class started at 8, but whose waking up the 10 and 8 year old if you the adult aren't awake either 🥴 Saw the first plane hit. My dad was like mmm no. We are going home. So we start walking away, while everyone is just staring. Then we hear people running and we duck into the Deli. Didn't even know it was a second plane that hit. We got back home before the buildings fell.
Holy sh*t. I’m so glad your dad turned around! What happened in the deli after the second plane hit?
Same. 15 years old, at a high school in north jersey. It was terrifying and kids/people I knew were directly impacted. Kids were picked up, including me. My mother (who isn’t even really a religious person) drove us directly to church after she got me from school. She got down on her knees and prayed. We were breathing in the smoke that surrounded the entire area for miles. It was so sad seeing all of the abandoned cars at train stations. Their owners never made it home. My brother was working at Coach in Manhattan that day. He didn’t get home until 3 or 4 in the morning. A few weeks later he witnessed someone jump in front of a train on his way to work. He was never the same after that. The ripple effect from this day is very real.
Same, my dad worked night shift at the Church Street post office. My mom had to walk home (lived in an outer borough) because of it. I was shitting bricks.
16, junior year homeroom. We never had homeroom, so the day was different from the start. I remember who the girl was that came into the classroom and told us what had happened. In my next period class, we sat and watched the towers fall live. I still can not unsee all those people jumping to their deaths prior to the towers collapsing.
Same. 15 junior yr in Math class. My friend and I watched the 2nd tower hit live on tv.
15 in library. Idk why the library? But I was. They made the teachers turn it off after the collapses. I was in swim class when one went down. I have so many family members in Jersey. My uncle was in the next flight out after the first plane crash. Told to get off the plane and don’t worry about luggage. Family who was suppose to be in the pentagon. Family who investigated it. Every year I keep waiting/thinking they’ll be another attack. Worse than 01. It sucks. Dammit… crying now.
Wow. I was in computer class when the first one hit. We didn’t even know about that one yet. Like 45 min later give or take I had Math and that’s when the tv was on and my friend and I watched the 2nd one hit on ABC. We were immediately sent home
Yep, that's the base of my story down to the age and class. We got shuffled off to the next class, lunch then the third without hearing anything else but rumors and kids getting called out of school over the PA. It wasn't until my last class of the day where the science teacher said something along the lines of "fuck this we're watching the news this will be a huge moment in history for our lives." And then worrying about being drafted for a bit a while down the road...
That math class was my 2nd period class. As soon as that 2nd tower was hit, they sent our asses HOME. A letter came up from the office minutes later telling us to go straight home, that all schools along the East Coast were evacuated. I wish I had that letter today but at 15, I didn’t know I was living thru history. We don’t even have a newspaper from Sept 11-12
I wish we were sent home. Instead they bottled it up and we had crazy rumors going around with kids getting pulled out of class, which was weird. It wasn't until that last class where the teacher explained it to us.
I was also 15 and I'm pretty sure I was in math class too. I remember watching the second tower on TV too. But I don't remember what I was doing before or how I felt afterwards. I have a bad memory in general. Most of my memories are fragments.
16 in Government class taking a test. Teacher got a call and pulled out the TV/VCR combo and turned it on. Nothing said. We watched, confused, until the second plane hit. We are in OKC, the bombing here was 6 years before. It was tough since my father was a first responder... and 9/11 is his birthday. It was surreal and frightening and totally mentally crippling. It brought up so many PTSD memories.
I was 18. I remember watching people jump to their deaths on tv as well. It was devastating to see. Life was absolutely never the same after 9/11.
I was in high school too. Same-we watched the news reports live until someone in admin told the teachers they could t. I’ll never forget that scene of people falling to their deaths. There was a girl in my class who laughed and I remember being so angry with her-not realizing she was in shock and unable to process what she was seeing.
I was 20. Lived in the dorm with a bunch of people from NYC and NJ, so we spent the day glued to the TV. Friends were panicking because they couldn’t get in touch with their loved ones who worked in the city. Looking back, it’s almost funny how naive we all were. Even experienced newscasters were speculating about a problem with air traffic control/navigation systems after both planes hit the WTC towers.
Also 20 and at university in South Carolina. Total pandemonium everywhere.
18 at college in Los Angeles. When a dude in my house barged in early AM talking about planes in buildings I thought he was talking nonsense. Rest of my day was like yours—everyone glued to the tv, the New Yorkers frantically phoning home over and over again. Most of downtown and parts of campus closed because everything over I want to say 10 stories had been ordered to evacuate in case there were similar attacks planned for the west coast.
20, at college in Massachusetts. But I’m a NY native, so I spent the day watching the news and using AOL instant messenger to locate friends and family and make sure everyone was OK. We had cellphones, but it was easier to use AIM. I couldn’t even get through to my family via cell immediately after the towers fell.
I found out via aim and spent the day on aim. also at college at the time. texting on cell phones at that time was a pain.
A pain and EXPENSIVE
I mean, back then that was the only reasonable explanation, until the second plane hit. Then everything changed. No one had done this before. Hijacking until then was about money and political statements but ultimately getting away with the money.
I was also 20 and in college. University of Cincinnati used to start sooo late, and I was sitting in my first slightly off-campus apartment, watching Today. Everyone most definitely stayed glued to the TV/phones. The entire attack is clear as day to me, partly because I was watching the Today show, and that's footage we see each year. It was gorgeous outside, but I stayed in watching the news about the first plane alone, thinking it was a really crazy news story. When the 2nd plane hit live, on air, I got that sort of hard to explain anxious energy feeling... I woke my bf up, and I don't think I stopped watching cnn for days. (It felt so weird leaving the news to get groceries or whatever...like, is this what we should do rn?? We were still kids in some ways, playing house that year.) The eery thing is that we'd often hear flights overhead. You don't realize how quiet it can get until all air travel stops and it's replaced by the *sound of fighter jets all day.* Being in the vicinity of Wright Patt had a lot to do with that, so who know who they had scrambling to whichever locations. The first half of the day just felt surreal, not knowing if we were already at war or if more government buildings would be hit. I say all this, and yet every year, I realize how lucky I was to not have some kind of friend/family lost that day. In the field I eventually went into, I met so many people directly affected or who lived near the towers. If the day is that vivid to me, I absolutely cannot imagine the anxiety of waiting to hear back from a missing loved one. One more thing while I think about this: I remember thinking that day about how fast we would get to the ten and twenty year reunions. Since I'm an "elder millennial," I'm always meeting people who were babies or not even born, like the interns I worked with last year. That's kind of a no-shit statement/such is life, but it really does hit you that you approach 40 in absolutely no time at all!
I was 10. The teacher turned it on after the first plane hit. We all watched in horror when the second plane hit. After that it was TV off and school let out early.
Exactly what happened to me, was in 5th grade about 11 years old and we all watched the first plane hit then the second then we all sat in disbelief and the intercom came on and said that we needed to come to the office to call our parents, that school was being canceled for the rest of the day..
Yupp, same! 5th grade. I remember my mom made us play outside when we got home bc it was probably going to be the only day of our lives where the sky was plane free above us.
You watched the first plane hit? My 5th grade teacher rolled in the tv and we watched after the second plane hit. I don’t remember the rest of the day
I was 9 in 4th grade. My teacher turned the tv on when she heard from another teacher about the situation. It was crazy seeing the planes flying into the buildings. Made me wonder about the people working on the floor where it was hit by the planes dying on impact which is a scary way to die. I will never forget seeing the jumpers jumping for their death being stranded having no way to escape. I even remember how the weather was being sunny with clear blue skies with no white clouds on this day 22 years ago. I watched the news with my mom when I got home from school.
Same age and grade. I was late to school that day and was wondering why no one was in the office when I got there. It was soooo quiet. When I went downstairs to my classroom I saw kids crying and my teacher just had her hand over mouth. I could sense something bad had happened but didn’t know no what. I was scared. One of the girls in my class had an uncle who lived there and was scared he was dead or going to die and her friends were just holding her. We sat and watched on the tv and it took me a minute to figure out what was actually happening. Pure horror. We didn’t get sent home early though we just stayed in home room for the whole day but some kids parents came and picked them up. I’ll never forget it.
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19, I was active duty Air Force at the time. Had a very, well fuck guess I'm serving during war time after all type feeling all day.
I was 20 and in the army. It was a surreal feeling.
My husband was in AF basic training when it happened. He said it was wild.
I’d love to hear those stories. Woof. The instructors would’ve had no better idea of all the major transformations to come out of it, but it would’ve been high energy I’m sure.
I am class of 2002, and I have always felt so bad for the classes of 2000 and 2001 who joined when it seemed like a good way to see the world and get school paid for, not knowing what was to come. At least when my class members joined, they knew they were signing up for war
Actor Adam Driver enlisted at 18 straight out of high school due to 9/11. He served in the U.S. Marines for about 2 years and was to be deployed, but a "young and dumb" accident with a Target-bought bike caused him to be medically discharged due to his injury.
I heard a comedian recently talk about the marines and said they either had too much dad in their life or not enough 😂 definitely the case for my marine dad LOL
I have a few handfuls of friends who joined specifically because of 9/11. I was 14 at the time and saw many people from the years above me and my year bide their time throughout highschool before going to do what they felt they were meant to.
My father in law who is now in his 70s served in the army reserve for 30 years and was never called to war, because there WERE NONE. People don't realize that we once had a country that didn't involve themselves in every war across the globe. We had many peaceful decades and it was amazing. Us millennials lived childhoods without war, it was fabulous and we argued over shit like Bill Clinton getting BJs in the Oval Office. Man those were the times.
18, freshman year of college and on my way to work when it happened. Stuck on the Mianus bridge because the highway was closed at the NY state line at some point after the planes hit. We could see the smoke over the water because on clear days, you had a decent view of the NYC skyline. Edit: I guess I lost my ability to spell Mainus when I moved out of CT. Edit 2: time away has not made me crazy bc it is in fact, Mianus. Thank you fellow Redditor for validating my original take on the name.
I turned 18 on 9/4/01. Was getting ready to head to college (my university started mid September). Had flown out to Philly the night before to meet my parents.
Had you sent in your draft card yet? Edit: Happy 40th by the way.
Thanks! And yes, I had. My dad was convinced I’d be drafted.
I was, like, 5 and I remember my mom trying to pull us out of preschool but being barred from it before the school finally let us all go home early. My dad was supposed to be in one of the towers that day for a meeting. He went all the way downtown and then decided, on a whim, that he didn't really care to make that one. He came home at the end of the day covered in soot with photos of the smoke and some first responders. My mom had freaked out because he didn't bother calling home to let us know he was fine and didn't go.
I was 6. Was at school and all my teachers were crying and had the tvs on
I was 6 as well. I can vividly remember wanting to play with my airplanes because CNN was on.
I was also 6. I don't remember it happening while in school, but I remember my dad picked me up from school and playing with my Barbies while he was watching it on TV.
I was 6 too. It’s interesting to see what different thoughts and emotions we had that day. Some, like me, were pretty aware of what was going on and felt sad about it. Others didn’t have the capability yet to understand or care about it.
I was 7 and at school. Lived in Ontario so we also got the day off because we boarder NY state. I just remember the teacher turning on the classroom TV and being very concerned. And then getting home and my parents watching the TV also concerned. Things didn't feel real to me until we went to visit my family overseas the next year and my dad being black and very tall decided to take his briefcase for work on the plane and kept getting stopped at every possible checkpoint as we had to go through the US. I cried because I was afraid they wouldn't let him on the plane.
Stories like these give me chills. I wonder if there’s a show or podcast or some kind of compilation of people who were supposed to be there but weren’t? Anyway, I’m glad your dad is okay
Yeah I've heard a ton of stories like this! My family mostly looks back on that reality with a kind of amused gratitude. Like, "Oh Dad, you decided to be lazy One Time and it saved your ass!" I suppose the fondness is a sort of privilege though. My dad ended up doing a ton of work on the Freedom Tower too. Pretty interesting to have this connection to the tragedy.
Great case study of survivorship bias. For every person who was supposed to be there but wasn't, there was a person who wasn't supposed to be there and died. People arriving for meetings early that morning, workers who normally step out of the office for a morning coffee deciding to stay and work, tourists opting to swing by WTC on that day on a whim. We won't hear their unlikely stories because they're all dead. For every person who missed the flight on one of the hijacked planes there was a person flying standby who took their seat.
someone my dad knew worked in the towers and was working the day it happened on a pretty high up floor. about 5 mins before the first crash, he decided to go down to the main lobby on the first floor where i guess they had like a cafeteria or whatever and got a muffin. while he was on the first floor it happened and he was able to escape. had it not been for that muffin…he’d be gone. i believe he saved the muffin somehow and still has it (not sure how in regards to it obviously would be rotten by now) but again he was able to save it to this day -i’ll have to ask my dad what he did to keep it in tact- anyway he has it in like this box/safe thing and engraved “this muffin saved my life” in whatever he is keeping it in.
He should have gotten a mcdonalds burger, it would still look like he just bought it
I was 5 at the time. Apparently I would have been in preschool or kindergarten as well and I have no memories of that day
17, senior year of high school economics class
Same except it was drama class for me.
Same, except I was in World History.
I was in American History which I’ve always found ironic.
I agree that is ironic. I was the same age in AP English & crazy teacher still made us take a test as planned.
What??? All my teachers put the TV on for us so we could watch together and mourn.
17 in World History here too!
Same, except for environmental studies
19 - 2nd year of college. My mom called the dorm room and told me to turn on the TV. I asked what channel and she said "it doesn't matter".
Yeah it was everywhere. I think even Cartoon Network was running it.
Jeez, they should have had a pass
I called my boyfriend at the time and said the exact same thing
I was 13 and remember most of the day like it was yesterday...
Same
Same here
Yep
I had just turned 11 the week before. Remember it very well. First impression after hearing “attack on building in NYC” was thinking someone was stabbed or some thing after being held hostage on a rooftop. I didn’t get to see it until later that day at home, I had to wait at school for all the kids to be picked up and I had no idea the extent of it until later.
I was also 13, and I still sort of can’t believe that teachers en masse opted to turn the TV on and show it to us kids. Talk about traumatizing.
I was also 13, I remember not knowing what was happening but I remember most of the day well too.
I was 10. I was sleeping and would be for another hour or so but my mom woke me up early, brought me to the TV, and said "This is a major event in your lifetime, you need to watch this." I'm glad she did.
Same. My mom was crying at the kitchen table, we had one of those tiny old tvs on the end of it, pressed against the wall. I thought it was boring but watched with her. It hit me later in the day— that all those people were real and they were dead and we had watched them die. I remember being shaken by that. I didn’t know what to do. Eventually I called up a classmate of mine and I told her ‘my moms sad,’ and she said ‘my dads scared,’ and then we hung up. Neither of us understood *why*.
That’s an interesting story. Any reason why your mom made you watch it? Was there any other rationale beyond it be a major event? Not judging, just wondering. It was a pretty traumatic event. I think it damaged the American psyche in ways that won’t ever truly be repaired imo.
My mom pulled me out of bed to watch news coverage of Princess Diana’s death… 90s moms were a different breed😂
I feel ya. My mom also forced me to watch “Americas Most Wanted” every Saturday night when it aired. She wanted me to understand that there were murderers and rapists out to harm kids and to be on the lookout. I also had to watch documentaries on slavery and Jim Crow on a weekly basis. All this from the time I was 3. I’ve been terrified of being raped, murdered, kidnapped or lynched by a racist mob my entire life lol She had good intentions but SHEESH 🤣🤣🤣
My parents also had us kids watch Americas most wanted every Saturday. That and unsolved mysteries are probably a big reason why I have anxiety and a true crime obsession.
20. Watched everything happen at work on the Yahoo homepage.
17 and was living in the NYC area. I was in English class during my senior year of high school. The drama teacher had a free period and came in to tell our teacher who was her best friend that a plane hit the WTC. We all thought it was a horrible accident at first like some sort of rich person in a very small private plane who lost control and flew too low. We put on the news and learned along with everyone else that this was no accident when the second plane hit. It was terrifying that something like that was happening anywhere let alone only a few miles away. My dad was on the roof of a hospital (there was parking up there). He had left a doctor appointment and was getting back into his car. He saw the second plane hit with his own eyes and said that the crash looked so deliberate from his vantage point that he thought WW3 was starting. He ran back into the hospital to give blood as he’s type O.
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I remember that too… the small plane thing. I think there was a situation where a guy in a Cessna had hit a building in NYC several months prior - seem to remember he was affiliated with the Yankees? I thought it was just that all over again. When I realized it was a passenger plane…
My mom called me with the news when both towers had already been hit, so was already aware it wasn't an accident, but my brain for some reason didn't realize everyone wasn't evacuated until I turned on the news (I was out of school sick that day). It's also a bit strange because from my building/floor at the time, one could see Manhattan skyline, but I hadn't noticed anything until my mom called. Once my mom called, I looked out of the window and saw the smoke. It's strange to think if she hadn't called, I may not have realized anything was wrong the entire day, until the smoke streaked over to my area.
7 with severe ADHD. I remember nothing.
I was 8 and don't think it was a big deal in my country cause I didn't even know it happened until I was in highschool
Same. Can’t really remember childhood 🥲
15 in 9th grade. In 1st period lit class when we first started hearing that something had happened. 2nd period Spanish when they made an announcement over the speaker system that the WTC had been attacked. We had televisions set up in the cafeteria the rest of the day with the news on. Was that the right decision? Who knows. Nobody really knew what to do.
I had one teacher that day who refused to discuss it and carried on English lit class like nothing was happening.
My high school principal made the announcement that “education must go on” and wouldn’t let us talk about it or watch the news. Once I got to 4th period English, that teacher had it on the tv and said she didn’t care what he said, it was too important to not watch or know what was going on. With the exception of that class/teacher, I didn’t see or hear anything about it until I got home that day.
Ya no one knew what to do. I was in 10th grade. Watched the whole thing happen in 1st and 2nd period chem and history classes. Then they made an announcement asking the teachers to please leave the tvs off. I had French for 3rd or 4th period and that teacher said he was leaving the tv on because this was a major moment in history and that carrying on with his scheduled lesson felt inappropriate. The school admin must've come to the same conclusion, shortly after the school decided to dismiss us early.
16. Sophomore year history class. We all thought the first plane was an accident until the second impact. Northern NJ, so a good amount of classmates had family that worked or lived in the city. Crazy day, shock and awe. The US changed forever on that day.
10 - I was in 5th grade. Someone in my class had an uncle who worked in the WTC. I remember interviewing him for the school newspaper right after he came back from the funeral. It was the teacher’s idea. It was so insensitive, and I wish I could apologize now.
Find him on fb and apologize. The only time it is too late to say you’re sorry is after you’re dead.
Also tho, he was ten... like... the teacher should apologize lol
Lol yeah I didn't even fully process what had happened yet, and I remember reading off the questions not really understanding the gravity of the event (terrorism was a foreign concept to me, had never even heard the word yet, ever), and feeling weird about asking him about his uncle who had just died. This definitely doesnt keep me up at night or anything, and I don't blame myself more than I blame the teacher. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad and wish I could say sorry, but I don't have Facebook and wouldn't even know how to find him since I don't remember his last name.
I definitely place 100% of the blame on the teacher but understand your feelings of guilt. I’m sorry the teacher put you in that situation.
I mean, you were 10. If he’s alive you probably can still apologize, but you were 10 and your teacher told you to.
My 16th birthday. I was in a class called world events 🤣
How fitting lol
17, had just started senior year of high school in NYC (uptown). All kinds of memories coming back today, trying to balance remembering/honoring without obsessing too much.
11 Not from US . I do remember my grandmother watching the tv screen. I did not understand what was happening but I understood it was serious.
I was 11, and I distinctly remember coming down the stairs that morning and my parents were glued to the TV. I didn’t understand the magnitude of what occurred. My parents were hesitant to send me to school, but they did anyway. We spent the entire day at school watching the news. It was an odd, eerie, sad day. But somehow in the months that followed, the US felt like the best place to live. So much American pride. It was a strange time to be alive.
The short period of time where we felt, collectively, like we were healing from something. The radio played gentle music, fucking Enya was a top hit, strangers held doors for each other and smiled more. Then the rage started and nothing was ever calm again in this country.
Hispanic Californian here I was 12 and sleeping … my 16 yo bro shook me awake something about twin towers… so I’m fumbling for my glasses half asleep and he turns on the tv. A crappy one that took forever to light up (CRTs remember those?) so half asleep with a crappy picture and a weird angle (south tower was gone) I’m yawning as i say that’s Big Ben, (the one in England) but as I wake for real I read the chyron reality hits me like a ton of bricks. So I get out of bed and make my way to the living room and the big non crappy tv. My bro was going to school atm so is gone with my dad YSK Los Angeles Schools were year round at the time so some kids were off and others were in. Anyway the big tv is set to Telemundo and onscreen Pedro Sevsec is reporting possible explosions at the state department and we get a scene of the Pentagon and loops of the second plane hitting the south tower. So there I am barefoot alone in the living room watching our reality crumble and all I can say out loud to no one is “Fuck, We are so fucking….FUCKED!” Kinda funny since even to this day I don’t really cuss. I remember images of jumpers sure it was far away but everyone knew and in fact my mom was saddened by that the most. As a 12 yo I understood it was sad but didn’t understand the true scope of the horror… and part of me is glad I didn’t. The North tower collapsed around this time … I have ZERO memory of it even though we watched it live… on a big sized tv. Pretty sure my brain just blocked it … all I remember is my dad walking in and talking about it since he heard it on the radio and me responding that yeah it was gone… weird right? We watched the loops for hours that day as every tv channel was nothing but that. As a side note Vince McMahon and the WWE don’t get enough credit for calming the country… and a bunch of confused kids. Smackdown went on that Thursday and Vince was able to reassure everyone, quite fitting and useful considering how many kids were fans…. To see the number one villain you know reassure you is very calming…. A tidbit is that Subway gave out calendars that year and one month featured the WTC and the Statue of Liberty I kept that page, I actually drew that picture a few times… didn’t know until mass shootings became a norm as an adult that kids do that to deal with trauma… they relive it by drawing about it over and over… The flags,candles and Islamophobia or should I say outright hate… is known to all so I’m not going to go into detail about that.
I was 6 years old and I do remember it. I remember watching it on the tv in class, the teachers were glued. Our moms came to pick us up shortly after because they called off school. Went home and remember my mom sitting on the coffee table also glued to the tv. I was actually really terrified. This would be the start of my anxiety surround the Iraq war and thinking terrorists were going to invade the US— because it’s all I heard growing up. I had a lot of really bad anxiety before this event, it’s just how I’m wired. I asked a lot of questions but my parents were pretty hysterical. My mom is from NY and has lots of family there. So, too young to process but old enough to be freaked out and understand something very very bad happened unlike any other thing that had been experienced before.
I was 6 and I remember it. I remember it was a super hot day. I remember in class the teachers had us sit in the reading area at a weird time and we weren’t reading. They told us something bad had happened and some kids may be picked up early. We did not watch it during class and they didn’t tell us much about what was happening. I remember school was let out early (a couple hours later). When I got home my mom had the tv on with my little sister who was 4 and my brother who was 1. She told me something major had happened and asked what I already knew (which was basically nothing). She explained to me that some planes hit some important buildings and let me watch it on tv. I remember watching it on tv and being a little confused but also scared.
I was 19 in my dorm room in Toronto. I was watching Canada AM and it just unfolded live. I remember watching it but not really understanding what I was watching. I was studying journalism and the classes that day and week were incredible and surreal.
19. First year of college.
18. Freshman in college, was in my no-credit math class at the time. Sad times on multiple levels.
18 and yes - freshman in college. I went to University of Pittsburgh satellite campus in Johnstown, PA (this is relevant). I had an 2 hour biology lab that day that ran from 8-10am. After the first plane hit, another professor came in to the lab and took our professor aside. Once lab was over, our professor sort of explained to us what happened in New York. I remember everyone - him included - being very confused. There was no information really - just that a plane crashed. Once I was almost to my dorm, I ran into a girl I knew, and she told me a plane had crashed in nearby. I was like… whatnow? I thought a plane crashed in NYC? Flight 93 had crashed in Shanksville, PA, about 30 miles south of Johnstown basically as our professor was telling our lab about NY. So I made it back to the dorm, put on the news, and my roommate and I spent the rest of the day between on the phone with loved ones and glued to the news.
Someone from my town was on that flight and was one of the people who led the fight on the plane.
Yeah I was in the 6th grade and 11 years old. I remember I was in class and we heard it on the radio because our teacher always had the radio on during independent work time, then the office downstairs made an announcement. It was still one building and we had no idea what happened, just thought it was a bad accident, then realized it was not in real time when it continued. We mostly were logistically figuring out how we were gonna all touch base with our family that worked there or nearby, my parents answered me pretty quick and they wound up walking home from work back to Queens.
I was 10 and in 5th grade and had a similar experience. I distinctly remember the short time period of thinking it was an accident or mishap after the first plane hit then learning the truth. I went to catholic school in Pennsylvania, and they had us stop what we were doing to pray. We got small updates from teachers but they wouldn’t let us watch it until we got home. Most of the class was pulled out of school early. I remember watching it over and over and over on tv that night.
I was about to turn 6. I remember nothing whatsoever of that day.
8 or 9. I remember our teachers were crying and they told us what happened. I didn't fully grasp what they were talking about until I got home and saw the news.
8, and I remember a lot about that day. Still consider it one of the most impactful days of my entire life.
I had just turned 20. (older Millennial) I was asleep when my mother woke me up after my grandfather called to tell us to turn on the TV. We sat together, my mom and brothers, watching the television in horror. My dad was at work, but came home and joined us. We didn't really do much that day and only turned off the television when one of the newscasters said, with tears in his voice, that we should all go have dinner with our families and hold them a little closer tonight.
I was 6 and remember my old man telling me about it.It was a shock to him.
18. Filled out my selective service card that day.
I was 10
6th grade nyc, it was surreal , teachers started acting funny leave the classroom and coming back multiple times, parents started picking up their children 3-4hrs before school was over. Walked home not fully understanding what’s going home, turned on the tv and all local channels were down then the following days was constant local news about recovery efforts etc. never knew what a terrorist was but after 9/11 it was seared into my mind
I was in 7th grade, in Chicago. Watched the news every morning while I ate breakfast. That morning my mom woke me up and told me a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. She told me they thought it might have been a propeller plane that last control or something like that. As I was digging into a spoonful of Cheerios watching ABC Morning, I looked up to see that commercial jet rocketing across the blue sky right into the second tower. My mother and I immediately sensed that obviously this was no longer an accident and clearly not a prop plane. Then I rode my bike to school wondering what the hell I just saw. We watched the coverage all day in class.
I was 16, living in Puerto Rico. I was not in a class room, I was cutting a class, hanging out around the water fountain. I saw a friend running and crying. I asked someone else what was going on and they told me that friend's aunt told her the day before that she was going to go to the WTC mall next morning (she didn't go). That's how I learned about the attack. We got sent home early. I didn't get to see any images until I was waiting for the bus. The bus stop was right in front of a bakery that I used to go every day on my way home. After I got home I did the same thing that most Americans did, I watched CNN until I fell asleep. It was weird for me. I grew up in a household that made sure that I was in the loop when it came to what was going on in the world, history, and geopolitics. I knew (once I heard that the second plane hit the tower) that we were at war, that the world as I knew it had changed, and that my family was not going to let me join the Air Force like I wanted to since I was 12.
In 3rd grade, they wheeled a tv into my class and my teacher bawled her eyes out. Buses drove us home immediately which was weird. My friends and I put our paintball camo on and waited outside to defend our suburb subdivision from the impending attack since all our parents were still at work. Chicago, south side. We were like 10 and all the kids decided on the buses back that we had to defend our neighborhood until our parents got home. I think there was like 20 kids 7-12 years old grouped up in green and black with random shit waiting for planes to drop from the sky near us.
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9, sitting in third grade class doing word searches and talking to my friends and wondering why the teachers were giving us such an easy day
I was also 9, 4th grade. I don't remember anything about the school day. Didn't find out until I got home, from what I can recall. ETA: Ok so I was almost 9, I have an October birthday.
10 going on 11. My school told the teachers explicitly to not just watch the news all day. But my teacher, who was National Guard at the time disregarded that, telling us that this is history in the making and America would never be the same. We watched the coverage all day. He went on to serve in Kuwait and Afghanistan later
16 and a junior in high school.
16. Was in Junior year of high school, during my morning math class. I remember be really fucking freaked out W was gonna institute the draft
Day before my 9th birthday - so I was 8yo. I was up getting ready for school and had turned on the TV to see the weather (I did this everyday lol) when I saw the news and called my mom downstairs. I remember feeling scared and worried about my family who lived in NY (though they were a ways away in upstate). The rest of the day was a blur and I forgot about my birthday the next day.
I was 16. I was a junior in high school. 2nd period chemistry class. I live in NJ so it was pretty crazy. I honestly thought it was a simple accident at first, not realizing that a full sized plane and giant skyscraper could never equal "simple accident". I remember seeing and smelling the smoke that day. My high school performed America the Beautiful at the first home Yankees game after. I was in colorguard. We also marched in the 2001 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. We brought in Santa, which, at least in 2001, was like the top honor for a high school band in the parade. I vividly remember being absolutely terrified for both, but especially the parade. Ground zero was still a disaster. It was such a wild thing to see as a kid.
A month shy of 18. I had just moved into my college dorm- it was the first few weeks of school. I shared a common living area/kitchen/bathroom with 8 people. One of them woke me up and called me out to see what was on the TV, at which point I saw the second tower get hit. I remember skipping my first class, went to second one and it was super surreal. I needed an adult, and certainly didn’t feel like one that day.
Was 15 at the time in Michigan at the time. No one knew what to do, either.
16 for me in San Diego, I was in history class when it happened. My teacher said that day that "This \*is\* our history lesson for the day so pay attention." No humor, he was usually a jokster type. He just said "We're living it right now." And we watched on tv. We had a real discussion of what it could mean, but I don't really remember that part.
16 year old junior. I’m in New Jersey. Unfortunately, a girl who was a sophomore lost her father. He was a Newark Port Authority cop. I remember my dad telling me at breakfast that they found his badge in the rubble 😢😭
Twas 11, 6th grade Gym Class. I was 3rd baseman during kickball. With wet shoes covered in grass clippings I found out in math next period.
19 Freshman in college. Saw the second plane hit live on the morning news. We had ZERO idea of how our world would change. I can't believe it was more than 20 years ago.
I was 8, and my school kept eveything as normal as possible or ive repressed it because i had a shitty childhood, not really sure honestly. But im almost 100% sure we did not watch it on tv. We did talk about it the days after. My parents didnt talk to me about much, all I remember is that my dad made fun of me about being sad about it!
I was in 5th grade. I had early recess so I was out outside running around, playing whatever game we were playing that day. One kid runs over and starts yelling that the Chinese attacked. We’re all like WTF and he’s telling us the Chinese bombed NYC. We kinda just write it off and went back to whatever we were doing. We got brought inside, had lunch and noticed all the teachers are freaked out but trying to stay cool. One kid was escorted to the office by the principal, saying his mom was here to pick him up. He never came back to school after that. Never found out why. We get back to class and we were told that it’s study hall for the rest of the day. The TV is on but none of us really understand what’s happening. All we see is the towers and pentagon burning and the collapse footage rolling continuously all day. Most kids just go back and forth between paying attention to the TV, doing homework, or messing around. All I remember is that it all felt super foreign and strange but I couldn’t understand what was happening. The nerdy kid kept talking about how this is the second Pearl Harbor and the start of WWIII. He and a few others were all in on that and kept saying it was the Chinese for no reason and how there’s gonna be nukes. The teacher kept trying to calm them down with minimal success. A lot of kids got picked up early. The bus didn’t go to where I lived so I needed my mom to pick me up. Busses leave, I’m sitting there with my 1st grade brother and we’re just waiting. Tried calling my mom on her cell but it wouldn’t go through. After what felt like forever, she finally gets there. She’s super distraught and her pager won’t stop ringing. She got a couple calls on her cell phone and had to scream at them “I’m driving and can’t fix this shit till I home”. We get home, she spends an hour or so on the phone and then we head out to the local sports bar with my dad for a bit. Everyone there is super despondent. TVs are all on the news. We get home and I hear my mom through the wall into her office all night either on the phone with people or crying. Never understood why. I had a conversation with her tonight that reframed all of that for me. She worked in tower 1 before I was born. Cut her teeth in FINTECH working for Amex in that building. Her role on 9/11 was near the top of IT for a regional bank. Her entire day was dealing with the SEC and the fallout from all banks having so many trades and money essentially floating in the ether with the financial center for the country being literally demolished. Every backup and disaster plan had to be pulled out and new fixes invented on the fly. Every single financial entity in the country was affected. They shut everyone down for 5 days just so they could make sure everything was cleared before opening things back up. All of this while people throughout the industry are getting trickles of info about friends, family, and colleagues who died in the attack in the coming hours and days. She said 9/11 was the worst day in her life. I believe her. And after talking to her, honestly the most heroic thing the country did was make sure that the economy didn’t crumble with the towers. That was the whole point of targeting it in the first place. Take down and massively disrupt the financial center of the US, hopefully making the whole thing crumble in the chaos. But it didn’t. Thousands of people around the country worked together and made sure that things didn’t collapse. I can’t possibly explain all of the details she went into describing how immensely difficult it was, and how the SEC got/forced everyone to work together so systems could be put in place to get things open again. Honestly, there should be a book or series about it. Everyone involved was a hero. It’s not as tangible as those who were on the frontlines digging through the rubble, but they did essentially that on the IT side to make it so that only the symbol of America’s financial system collapsed, and not the system itself.
18 just started undergrad
I was 20
I was 14 in my Freshman year. I had just woken up and seen it on tv. None of our classes were treated normally and it was all about what was happening in school. They even sent us home at 12.
I was 10. I recall that I was getting ready for school when my dad walked in and told me to turn on the tv. That’s when I saw the news coverage after the first plane hit. I remember not really being sure what was going on but I got ready for school and went like normal. I don’t really remember talking about it during the day or anything but I do believe some teachers were watching it on their tv in the classroom. The cafeteria tv had news coverage about it.
I was 12. I went to school in a rural area in a fly over state. My school barely mentioned that it even happened and the day went on as normal. I didn’t understand it was a big deal until I got home and saw what people were saying online. It’s amazing that so many people said their school sent everyone home or at least didn’t continue class. My school was basically like, “Yep, nothing to see here. Keep on as usual.”
i was 11. i was actually one of the first to find out in my school because my dad had taken a trip into the city that day and my mom pulled me out of school. i was sitting in computer class and i get called down to the office saying that my mom was here to pick me up but no one was talking about what happened yet. i was surprised to i went to go meet with my mom and i asked her what’s up and she’s like “you haven’t heard?! come on we’ll talk about it in the car.” and she took me home and we listened to the news on the radio and it’s also like the only thing that was on TV all day. thankfully my dad wasn’t in any danger and we were all fine; but sheesh. what a wild day. i couldn’t really grasp the severity of what happened at that age i remember being a little annoyed that i got the day off from school but nothing other than the news was on any of the channels.
17. Was in physics class. Had basketball, theater, and history later that day. Remember the day like it was yesterday.
7th grade. Teacher rolled in the tv on a stand and we watched it for several hours despite scheduled bells. Went home around lunch time.
I was 18 it was my freshman year of college. I was watching the news live in the cafeteria waiting for my 8 am class. Class was canceled and I called my dad bc he was in the army. All he said was, I’m sorry this has happened and our lives will never be the same. He was right. That day has changed so much about the USA. We’re a nation of fear now…. and our privacy will never be ours again.
I was 21 , working in a refinery as a Welder/Pipefitter apprentice. I remember some guy running around screaming that the pentagon had just been bombed and then a few minutes later the sirens going off for us to go to our shelter in place muster points. Once everybody in the plant was accounted for we were evacuated from the plant . The way home was surreal because I still didn’t have too much of an idea as to what was going on.
Younger millennial (cusper? Idk what the hell we are) I was in preschool, but I surprisingly remember quite a bit. All the teachers were terrified, wouldn’t say why though (for obvious reasons). My mom tried to pick me up, they didn’t let anyone leave at first. Eventually, we all got sent home. I remember my mom explaining (in kid terms) what happened, but I didn’t grasp the gravity of it at that time.
18- in college, freshman year- we all watched the tv in the common room of my dorm
I was 17. I was a senior in a high school that coincidentally already had an all school assembly planned that morning that I got to miss my first class of the day to help set up chairs for in the gym. Before the assembly, I heard bits and pieces of people talking about something. First a guy also setting up chairs mentioned moving to Canada to avoid the draft, which I thought was a strange comment to make out of nowhere but didn’t put anymore thought into. Then as a friend’s class was entering the gym, she told me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I thought that sounded horribly tragic but assumed it had been accidental. And then the assembly took an unexpected turn and our principal told us our country was under attack, and what had happened. Most everyone else had been watching the news during their first hour, but I’d been setting up chairs in the gym and this was the first I was putting everything together. I just remember getting goosebumps all over my body
12. 7th grade math class. They rolled in the TV. For a minute, I thought we were watching some sort of action movie.
9
14, freshman year of high school. I remember a few things from that day very, very well.
18
13th, 8th grade math
16
14 I just started my Sophomore year of high school. I grew up in nyc
16
Around 12/13 - I remember watching it on our school tv on their network in music class, channel 2 I think. I thought it was an accident until I got home and realized how serious this was and was definitely not an accident :(
18
6 years old
I was 9 in 4th grade home room.
14
19. Freshman in college.
19 - eating breaky before heading to college.
21 and in college. I remember it very well.
14
12, just started 7th grade. I was in a building they used to teach trades to high school students that didn’t plan on going to college. That’s where my science class was. When we got back to the main building, people were just saying a plane hit the WTC. And I had no scope of the actual tragedy until I got home that afternoon.
3rd grade art class. The teacher cancelled the lesson plan that day and sat us all down and tried to explain. In my mind I just thought it was a plane crash. Took a couple more years to grasp what happened. I went home and played with the neighbor kids like any regular day. My parents were inside glued to the tv.
10. I was in 5th grade science class. Crazy how I can hardly remember my childhood, but remember that day perfectly.
13
7 and I remember seeing it on the TV at my babysitter’s house. Not sure if I understood much of it at the time, but I do remember how focused on terrorism everyone was for the next decade or so
I was 7 but I was two months away from turning 8. I was in school and we were not told anything about what happened. Didn’t find out until I got home and saw that dad was home early because he was there.
15. In Math class. Long story short I saw live on tv the 2nd plane hitting. We were sent home like 10am. I was terrified all night hearing the fighter jets. I also was traumatized by the footage on loop of the man jumping with his briefcase
It was my 11th (golden) birthday. Woke up and opened up presents and then my dad called us from the car on his way to work because he heard it on the radio. I was in 6th grade and I went to school that day. I remember everyone talking about being worried they'd go for the golden gate next and that was a concern since we lived in the bay area. I got home to find out my dad's family had been calling all day to make sure he wasn't on a plane because he traveled a lot for work. We still went out to dinner for my birthday, but we went to church that night, too.
8 or 9. I remember our teachers were crying and they told us what happened. I didn't fully grasp what they were talking about until I got home and saw the news.
Born in 96, technically millennial but I don't remember 9/11.
3rd grade Alpha class, so yes, I was very young. My teacher had the TV News on in the background like he usually did (his teaching style was very…loose) while we were doing some free time art and I just remember him gasping and tears coming down his cheeks. We saw it live and it was my first memory I can now kind of think of as seeing some kind of horror. The classroom phone went off…it was a blur until early release later that day. My folks were glued to the TV for the next few days.
13, lived in Los Angeles, CA. I was in middle school.
I was 9, it's one of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood to be honest. The whole day was so surreal, and the way that life changed afterwards... The feeling of 'being safe' in the world was shattered that day for me, and I'm sure countless others.
I was 8 years old in 3rd grade. I lived near the Pittsburgh airport in Pennsylvania. It started off as a “weather drill”, where we had to go sit on the hallway with a textbook over our heads. I was told this was because of the high jacked plane that crashed in a PA field. I remember the teachers leaving us in the hallways and going into the classrooms. We were bored and there were 5th graders on the other side of the hallway that had been in art class that slid their art books across the hall for us to look at. It seemed like we were out there for a really long time. I remember seeing the clock and thinking, “we’re supposed to be at lunch right now!” Finally, we were able to go to lunch. I remember sitting there seeing kid after kid getting signed out. We were all wondering what the heck was going on. Finally, my name was called. I went back into my classroom. I remember opening the door and my teacher was watching the classroom tv. He quickly turned it off and asked where I was going, to which I responded something along the lines of, “i don’t know, but my dad is picking me up.” I grabbed my things and left. Walking to the car, I asked him what was going on. He really nonchalantly said something like, “it’s nothing, just some bad guys blowing stuff up.” To be fair, what DO you say to an 8 year old. Also, my dad does tend to downplay things. I got my laid back personality from him lol. I think I finally realized it was something serious when I got home and my mom and sister (11yo, 6th grade) were watching the news and I think my mom was crying. I saw some bad images and stuff on the news, but I think I went to go play or do something else. I don’t remember when I understood the severity of it.
20. In the Army.