September 11, 2001


It is a normal day today. I woke up, got ready, drank my tea, read the newspaper and listened to the news. My wife is at the counter making the kids lunch and I am sitting at the kitchen table. I can hear the stories talking about a jury selection and how important it was, basketball, and other things that I really did not care about. Everyday I walk to work, and it is a nice day outside; the sun was shining, there were clouds in the sky, and the weather is just perfect. I work at the World Trade Center in the second tower. My office is located in the middle of the tower and just like every day I am sitting on my chair, doing my work on my computer, and waiting for the phone to ring; I had a meeting with my boss today at 10:00 a.m. and I think I am going to get a promotion.

As I am going about my normal day, I hear a loud crash outside. Since I was curious as to what happened, I looked out my window and saw smoke rising from the tower across from me. Everyone in the office turned on his or her TV and we learned that the smoke was from a plane crashing into the tower. That is when the people in my building started to panic. I, on the other hand, am not sure how to react to what just happened. Was it an accident or did someone do this on purpose?

Time is passing and as it did more smoke and flames rose into the sky, and we saw some people jumping out of their windows. You can see another plane coming from the distance, and I was wondering if it was going to crash into the first tower as well, but then it crashed into my tower. It crashed four stories above me. I began to panic, but as my mind was processing what was going on, I became completely oblivious to all of my surroundings. Minutes are passing and I am just standing here. My eyes are filled with water, tears running down my face. Am I going to live or am I going to die? I cannot bring myself to jump from the building: maybe I still have a chance to live. I have a family at home; a family that I have to provide for. This was my drive to live and save myself. I look around, still processing what was happening, and I saw women and men in my office crying and on the phones to their families. I finally came to my senses and began to understand what was going on. This was a terrorist attack and was no accident.

I ran out of my office and into the crowd of my coworkers. The plane crash shut the elevators down and the lights were out. It is dark and hard to see where you are going through the crowd of people. I quickly made my way to the stairs and darted down them as fast as I could. I tripped over a couple of people and more people tripped over me. Everyone is in a panic. When I got to a floor, I stopped to look out of a window. Outside I saw people in panic and ambulances and firefighters doing everything they could, although we all know that they cannot save everyone in here, they may not even be able to save me. Policemen were trying to calm down the pedestrians and keep everyone away from the buildings. The news reporters were trying to explain to everyone else what was going on; I was not even sure that I knew what was going on.

I am out of breath. I can feel my heart beating inside of me as I took deep breaths. I am scared, I am panicked, and I am trying to save myself. I stood there looking out of the window. I am not sure how many more flights of stairs there were left. I started to rethink the possibility of jumping. Was I going to let myself be killed by some terrorist or was I going to decide my own fate? I stood there and thought about it and decided that I might still have a chance to get out. The tower across from me was still standing, so I figure our tower will also be able to stand for a little bit longer.

I continue out the door and see people tending to the injured ones. Some have small scrapes and cuts from where they fell, and then some that were closer to where the plane had crashed have broken bones, or a deep cut where they would need stitches. The people helping know that they would die in the building, but they are still trying to help. I cannot bring myself to stay in the building. I am terrified. Although I might regret it later, I am going to be selfish and try to save myself and not worry about everyone else. In this situation I feel like it is every man for himself. I cannot let my family live alone, without a dad and without a husband.

I manage to make it down a few more flights of stairs, but my legs are beginning to get tired. They are trembling from all of the running as well as the horror that I am feeling. My hands are shaking and my forehead is dripping sweat, but I am not going to give up. Suddenly I can feel the building shaking and my first thought is that another plane crashed into the building. I am waiting for more smoke to rise up into the sky; which earlier today was a pretty blue as the sun rose and the clouds gathered. Now when you look out all you can see is the smoke gathering and the darkness of what was happening. I have about three more flights of stairs to go when I see something out of the corner of my eye: pieces of my building are falling to the ground. I now know that in a few moments the building is going to be completely destroyed. The pieces are going to lie around me and my body will be buried beneath the ashes and what would be left of the tower. I manage to make it two more flights when I see the smoke completely surrounding the building, and that is when the roof of the ceiling is about to hit me, this is the end and I know it. In my final moments one thought went through my head: my wife was supposed to come visit me this morning with the kids, I wonder if she was already there in the elevator, somewhere in the building, or hopefully still at home or on her way. With this thought, I no longer have time to run.