9/11 forces student to think about the thinkable

by Svetlana Finkelshteyn

September 11th 2001 was supposed to be an ordinary day. I got to school at 8:45 in the morning because I had to print Psychology articles from the Computer Lab. After I got the articles I walked to my Russian class but a couple of people standing on the third floor of the East building caught my attention. They were snapping pictures of something. I thought it odd but didn’t pay too much attention to it. I got to class but it hadn’t started yet. That was when I noticed I had voicemail on my cell phone. I tried accessing it, but couldn’t! Thinking the reception in the building would be better if I went to a window, I walked over to the windows on the East side. I heard people discussing a plane crash and hoped the people were okay but didn’t really understand how it concerned us.

I got to the windows, but I couldn’t get the voicemail and I couldn’t dial out either. Odd, very odd. I looked up and saw something that can only and should only be seen in a movie theater – the North tower of the World Trade Center burning! I stood there, flabbergasted, in shock, in disbelief, wondering how in the world this could happen. A crowd had started to gather and someone said a plane had crashed into it. The first thing that went through my head was that it was an accident and I hoped no one was seriously hurt. The second thing that went through my head was that this was a movie; it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. I saw a friend and asked to borrow his cell phone to try and call my boyfriend, who I knew had left the voicemail informing me of this catastrophe, but I couldn’t dial out from his cell either. Very very odd! I just stood there, staring at the building, the upper floors engulfed in flames and smoke. I saw papers and small pieces of silver debris fly out and asked someone nearby how someone could possibly fly into the twins, they’re kind of hard to miss. I turned right to hear their response; just then I heard a sonic boom. I turned back and saw the second tower engulfed in flames. By then a group of 10-12 people had gathered to watch this. Two people said they saw another plane go into the South Tower. That was unthinkable. One, yes, that could happen, an accident perhaps. But two, unthinkable!! I turned and told them it couldn’t be, don’t scare people or spread rumors, a second airplane was impossible!! No airplanes were even allowed to fly over New York City so this was preposterous. Someone asked me to explain it. I really had no explanation, I volunteered that perhaps the heat from the first building got to the second one. As I stood and watched it burn I thought it was going to fall over, onto us. Someone assured me that would never happen. I felt somewhat safer and went back to class.

In class, I told my Professor what had happened and she just turned white. Another girl in the class had a boyfriend who was supposed to go to the World Trade Center for a meeting. She tried to maintain her composure but I could see the panic in her eyes. The Professor said we should take a break for about half an hour and then come back and see if we can continue the class. Everyone in the class rushed to the nearest payphone to call their families. My friend couldn’t get hold of her boyfriend since all cell phones were down. I tried reassuring her that he was fine but she disappeared later on. I, in the meanwhile called my boyfriend at work, who I knew by this time, would be frantic to know I was all right. He answered the phone, asked if I was okay, and told me that the World Trade Centers had been hit by two commercial jetliners and that it was an act of terrorism. His next words caused chills to run though my body, “Get the hell out of there!” I assured him I would leave as soon as possible, hung up, called my mom, told her I was all right. Not wanting to stand there and just watch the twins burn I decided to go back to class. On the way there I heard that the English department had suspended classes for the day. I went back to my class, told my Russian teacher that a lot of professors were not holding class. She instructed us to go home, be safe.

For the next hour I wandered around school, meeting friends, trying to get my cell phone to work, and finding out if all classes were canceled or just some. I must have gone to ever security guard in the building and all of them told me classes were still on. But how? The twins are burning, people are dying, terrorists are attacking the city, and classes go on? What about our safety? I wandered into the Financial Aid office and heard on the radio that there was another plane circling around. At that point I just wanted to get out of there. I knew my last class was canceled since it was English but now I needed to know about Music. As nutty as it may seem, I didn’t want to cut class on the second week of school even while all of this was going on walked over to 41 Park Row, ignoring my boyfriend’s warning, and asked the guard if classes were still on. He told me probably, he didn’t know for sure. When would they know? When they make an announcement? And when would that be, I wondered? When we go up in flames too??? The elevator stopped on the first floor and I figured I’d just take it up to the twelfth floor, make sure class was canceled and then try to get myself home. I’d already heard that the trains had stopped running. The only way out of the city was through Brooklyn Bridge and that was a path I did not want to take. I thought like the comic adze terrorist would: “What’s the next best place to bomb or blow up? Somewhere with lots of people? A major way of transportation from Brooklyn to Manhattan? Brooklyn Bridge!” And I did not want to be there. I took the elevator up, found my Professor who told me classes were still on and that it was not in his power to cancel them. He said if enough students would show up, he’d teach the class. Well, by this time it was about 9:55 a.m. Class would start at 10 so I figured I could wait five minutes and see. A few minutes later another kid came up and we were discussing what had happened when I heard screaming. I ran to the window, pulled up the shade and saw people running as if they were in a bullring and there was a bull chasing after them! I couldn’t understand why everyone was running all of a sudden. Just then I saw a thick cloud of smoke coming up from the tenth floor. I was petrified, thinking we, 41 Park Row, had been hit or a plane had crashed into us, and we were on fire!! I ran to the nearest staircase and ran down the stairs so fast that I didn’t know my feet could travel at such high speeds. When I got to the first floor I asked if we had been hit. Someone said that the North Tower had collapsed.