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| by Stuyvesant High School Students, |
Sep 28, 2001 |
I watched in horror as I saw what I first thought was rubble, but then realized was people jumping from the building. People stood in the gash in the building waving jackets and shirts trying to catch the attention of the people below. I looked up at the TV in the room and noticed debris was beginning to fall rapidly from the upper floors. I looked out the window and saw the thousands of people on the street screaming and running northward and ambulances and fire engines below the building begin to be engulfed in a pile of debris and ash. I was practically still as I realized the cloud was moving towards the school and the lights flickered and the building shook…. When I finally got onto West Street I turned around and looked at the place that the Twin Towers once stood and looked to my left where I noticed that a man was walking, shell shocked, covered in white dust. All I could think of was the resemblance to a ghost this man had. He eerily walked forward because that was the only thing that he could do, he just kept walking. It was almost like walking alongside a man who wasn’t there. You got the feeling that he understood just how close he came to death.
—Sasha Gsovski, senior
I first found out a plane hit when Teitel made the announcement that “a small plane has crashed into the World Trade Center,” but the way he said it he made it sound like some moron in a 2-person charter plane forgot to pull up on his stick and it was a complete accident, so everyone started laughing and we thought nothing of it.
—Rocksheng Zhong, sophomore
We walked briskly in the halls, looking for people we knew to walk with, watching all the people in hysterics holding each other, everyone was terrified, a lot of people had family in those buildings. God. My friends had family in there.
And we’re all ready to burst and cry and we all are running into each other, and we’re scrunched up against the whole world, and everyone’s wanting to get out!
It’s a terrible situation, everyone is talking about everything, my friends are making pages for the students to post messages about what we think and what’s going on now. After it happened we’re all realizing all the things we liked about that area. Everyone had their special spots. We loved to go to the “faraway deli,” as we called it, for lunch. We loved to go to the “Cinderella stairs” and walk across the mirrored bridge, and we’d see the orchid show, and hang out in the bookstores, and there were just so many things that we will miss…
—Meghan O’Halloran, junior
I really didn’t expect all that to happen…. I didn’t expect the buildings to fall down. I think it’s too hard to comprehend. Seeing it on TV is just not the same, I can’t understand the magnitude of it.
—John Mui, guidance counselor
If this were a movie evacuation it would have been fun; my friends wouldn’t be crying; I wouldn’t be crying. If this were a movie my legs wouldn’t be sore from walking from Stuy to Lexington Avenue, and dummies would fall from the buildings, not people; the Twin Towers would not be scattered across Lower Manhattan and that dark cloud would have not caught in my throat as I walked away as fast as I could. But this isn’t a movie. It’s the scariest day of my life.
—Lu Han, sophomore
These things happen in the world. The only way it’s different from other events like this is that this happened in the U.S. You don’t see the other people in other countries be as crazy as we are—most of those people don’t realize that it’s perfectly fair to have an attack on our soil, considering the political stands we have all around the world.
—Brian Chu, sophomore
I really didn’t expect all that to happen.... I didn’t expect the buildings to fall down. I think it’s too hard to comprehend. Seeing it on TV is just not the same. I can’t understand the magnitude of it.
—John Mui, guidance counselor
I saw people jumping and they looked like debris. I didn’t know people would jump.
—Marisa Ip, sophomore
I had been called to the office immediately following the first plane crash, so I didn’t get to see much of my teacher’s reaction, because a friend’s dad was there to get me…. Some of my friends were crying, others were trying to make jokes, because that was how they dealt with it…. I can’t watch the news anymore, so I have been helping at fundraisers and clothing/food drives. I went to a candle lighting ceremony in the park, and it made me feel a lot better. I couldn’t think anything, I was so upset. I saw red. My friends couldn’t calm me down, I wasn’t crying like most, I was enraged. The anger came from the helplessness—I was so close, but I couldn’t do ANYTHING. And no matter how strong I thought I was.... I still found myself running AWAY from where I had close friends and family.
—Meg Kuczynski, junior
It all seemed to be a blur; the only vivid images I remember is when I was on the marble staircase. I saw the cloud of smoke and dust rush the school. You could not see out the windows. All the teachers I interacted with were calm and tried to console the students as best as they could…. I feel homesick. I think it makes all of us appreciate our school much more than we did.
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