Ten years ago, September 11th happened nearly in Purchase College’s backyard. College students were then in elementary schools when the attack hit; some far away, some living right in Manhattan, but each has their own unforgettable experience. One student, Alyson Lopez, a biology major and senior of Brooklyn, shares her story.
When 9/11 happened I was in the 5th grade and attended P.S 346 in Brooklyn. Our health teacher walked into homeroom and asked my teacher if she had seen on the news that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I guess it must’ve been that I was 11 years old and very, very ignorant. I didn’t know what the World Trade Center was or the twin towers. I also seemed to think that planes crashing into buildings were a tragic yet not so strange ordeal. A few friends in my class however had parents who worked in the twin towers. We went on with our classes but everyone was getting picked up from school early.
By lunchtime my mom and grandfather were there to pick me up. I didn’t understand what was going on still. We headed to pick up my sister from middle school. The traffic was bumper to bumper. The highways were just as bad so we stuck to the local routes.
My mom was upset that she wasn’t allowed to take my sister out of school and we had to stick around until she was let out at 2:45. I began to understand what was going on then because I saw the debris in the schoolyard of my sister’s middle school. They weren’t allowed to play outside for about a week or so after until all the debris and smoke was cleared up.
When we got home, phone calls from family members began flooding in calling to see if we were okay. We became most concerned with my father who worked as a podiatrist in Coney Island hospital. Debris from the crash had polluted the area and patients from Ground Zero kept the emergency room full to capacity. My father didn’t get home till late that night and went back to work even earlier the next morning. I just remember my mom telling us everything will be okay, made us sandwiches and put on cartoons.
All that night I sat looking out my window at the smoke from the direction of Manhattan. We found out the next day that my friend’s father was actually late to work that day because he had to pay some bills before he went in to work. He saw the building he worked in fall to pieces on the news. It was a very solemn time after that for a while everywhere.