Student essay on 9/11 photography, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Ctimn**nKirative edition b\' the stu«.tenLs of Stu^vesant School

“So what did you learn in being in an unsupervised room. When I saw that giant black school today?” On September Without a word, we pointed to gash in the North Tower, I felt a 11, I gave a horribly truthful the window, and the teachers’ pain in my heart from which I answer to this familiar ques­ authority disappeared as each shall never recover. tion: “I learned that it is easy to burst into hysterical tears. By Soon after the second tell a falling body from a falling ten o’clock, there were six plane hurtled into the South The explosion, the image of 1 piece of debris because bodies teachers lined up next to the Tower, we were ordered to evac­ the first building crumbling in 1 fall much faster.” We stood in four of us, crying on each oth­ uate the school, FBI agents and on itself, 1 can't forget that. the ninth floor chemistry lab for ers’ shoulders just like we were. National Guard soldiers And the image of all those almost an hour, shocked by the When I had heard that a swarmed about the school people on the ground run­ sight of men and women in lobby and then led us on our ning as the smoke covers expensive clothes glancing back I learned that it is easy to exodus up West Street as both into what was once their office, towers collapsed. them. You could see an before throwing themselves tell a falling body from a As we marched north, the emptiness in everyone's eyes, toward the chaotic sidewalk piece of debris because Orpheus in me periodically like no one really knew what hundreds of feet below. Some glanced back over my shoulder was going on. They were all appeared to have had a running bodies fall much faster. to behold the smoky void where looking for some explanation, start while others stood at the ninety minutes prior the Twin and yes, some girls started to edge until the flames licked small commuter plane had Towers had soared invincibly. cry. Then their friends started their skin and pushed them off accidentally crashed into the Likewise, the Israelite in me to comfort them. I had tears into the endless cloud of smoke. North Tower, I had rushed into prayed that someone would Some held hands, while others the dark unoccupied chemistry step out from the fleeing mass in my eyes. preferred to dive alone into lab on the south side of the of people, part the Hudson, and —Vlad Isakov, senior whatever fate followed that building to see for myself. lead us away from that chaotic smoke. hell and into the promised land I saw people running toward At one point, two teachers noticed us in the vacant lab, the of New Jersey. —Dylan Tatz the bridge, and when I looked out the window, I saw a hole and began to reprimand us for October 2, 2001 in the World Trade Center. 1 ran and got my camera, and I decided just to leave it on. I “ of sr ~ wad tried to get a little bit of the commotion surrounding the Dear Diary, about limits and James Joyce events.... When the second I want to explain to every­ and biochemistry once more. blast happened, I tried to run one I know why Tve been out of But teachers, please think sorts recently.There are two rea­ sons. The first is that I, like seaior about what we students are try­ ing to handle. You’re probably back into the building. I was scared to death. They would­ The Diary ofa Mad Senior is a regular column. n't let me back in, though. everyone else, am struggling to trying to handle the same stuff. deal with what happened, and And it’s hard, isn’t it? Senior pictures were being it’s a very hard thing to do. heard this before. Your class­ I’ve stayed up past 1:00 a.m. taken, and I was banging on Everything has an association. I mates, your students have writ­ finishing homework too many the door for them to open it, 11 stare out the window of my ten tons of essays about work times. Tm exhausted and and the people inside just Poetry class and remember and how it’s doing away with stressed and we were too close. [shrugged apologetically]. 1 what I saw there over a month them. There is a difference now. We were too close and we need crawled back to the front of ago, the towers smoking like The difference is that the world some kind of break. On the sub­ the building and ran up the chimneys—and I see now the we knew slipped out of exis­ way today I stopped doing stairs. Everything was calm obscene amount of sky, the sun tence on September 11 and we homework and closed my eyes inside.... The next day I that was never there before, the now face a new, less certain because I wanted to sleep, and I odd rectangular outline in the thought about what Td been hurt—the experience had world. We watched the news architecture. I want to walk out about the worst terrorist attack through and I couldn’t believe been physically draining. It of my classes and into the hall­ in history and we saw the how much work I had, how little was painful to me that some­ li way and out into the street and bridge to Stuyvesant. We were sleep I would get again tonight, one would hurt us like that. wander TriBeCa and walk close. We were too close and we how little time Tve had to think I've always considered uptown or maybe across the are trying to handle it. And yes, about what happened and what America as very innocent, a i, Brooklyn Bridge or take a ferry it means. we are here because we like and very innocent society. I think to Hoboken. are good at Spanish and history We care more about regain­ this was our loss of inno­ I want to get out. I am so and precalculus and English. ing some kind of peace than happy to be here but I want to rushing so we’ll finish the cur­ cence. But we are not here, not now, to —Elka Gould, technology get out. I’m so happy that Tm focus on making up for lost riculum in time. Please respect being forced to handle it but I time. We are here to focus on that. teacher can’t handle it. And I must say I the world we lost, how we lost it, It is now 12:30 a.m., and Tm wish everyone talked about it and how we can begin to regain going to bed. Every day since that hap­ more. some semblance of what we Good night all, and get pened, I've cried at least once That’s the first reason Tve once took for granted. And yes, some rest. a day. I don't really know been out of sorts. The second school is important. It is key to —Abigail Deutsch why. After all. I'm one of the reason is the work. Yes, you’ve get back into a routine, to think October 24, 2001 lucky ones. I wasn't hurt, my family wasn't hurt and my friends weren't hurt. cotheques, Sbarro pizza shops, the World Trade —Gabriela Magda, sopho­ continuedfrom page 18 Center) rather than “traditional” institutions such as schools and churches, because the target more and consequently so has Arab anti- is the U.S. military and cultural expansion into Americanism. the traditional Arab world. It has been suggested that terrorist targets America never succeeded in winning the have been military ones (the Al-Khobar barracks "hearts and minds of the people” in Vietnam. in Saudi Arabia, the warship U.S.S. Cole, the American attempts to change the Arab extrem­ Pentagon) and cultural/economic ones (dis- ists’ minds will be just as difficult.

The Spectator • Fall 2001 19

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