update sept 11, 2001:I'm in Florida, and fine. My former HS was just evacuated...I don't know what to say. The below w/u is about the WTC bombing in 1993, not about today.
My point of view of the WTC bombing was a bit different. I was not inside, but rather in high school about three blocks to the north.
It was 5th period I believe. I was in a computers class. Out of nowhere, there was a loud thud. Didn't sound like an explosion really. Rather, it sounded like a truck backfiring or a dumpster being tipped. It sounded like it came from above, and since the lunchroom was on the next floor, I assumed it was something minor related to that. No one thought anything of it and class continued.
Then maybe 10 minutes later, we all heard some sirens and looked out the window, facing south across an empty lot (which is now an apartment building) and saw all these lights a few blocks downtown. Class ended and I went downstairs to my economics class, which also was on the south side of the building.
We saw some more lights, but the teacher made us sit down and despite our curiousity, we had to stay seated.
Next was a math class, with a much more lenient teacher. Rumors had been going around that there was an explosion in the World Trade Center. We all stood by the windows, watching and wondering. Then suddenly there was a helicopter, hovering maybe 20 feet from us, straight ahead. In a completely surreal moment, someone waved at the pilot, and he waved back, before heading towards the giant mass of lights and screeches of sirens, which had gradually increased.
I forgot if there was an announcement or if someone turned on a television or radio, but by the time I left school, everyone knew there was some sort of explosion at WTC.
Of course, I had to see what was happening. I walked the few blocks, towards the lights, and the noise. By this time, most of the evacuations were complete. Still, I saw quite a few people with soot on their clothes and their faces. It was organized chaos. No one seemed to know what had really happened and there were people crying and hugging. It all seemed like a sort of dream.
A day later, I read the newspapers and discovered one of the people who died in the blast was the father of a 7th grade classmate of mine. This hit home hard. I mean, that could have been my father or even me. I took the subway and ferry to work everyday and walked by the WTC on many occasions.
Being a high school student and a New Yorker, I had felt immortal. What could hurt me? That all changed on the snowy afternoon. In a way, that was the beginning of the end of my childhood. I started taking things more seriously and felt vulnerable and more defensive. An event like that can certainly change someone who was involved, like sockpuppet. But it also impacts those further in the distance, like me.