I was up all night studying in college. I went bed at like 4am to get maybe 5 hours of sleep before a big exam. Woke up at at like 7 am to my roommate and his friends being loud as fuck. I was pissed because I really needed sleep. Walked out to living room to tell them to stfu. They looked at me with wide eyes, and pointed at the tv.

A few minutes later the second plane hit. Jfc. What a moment.

I knew then that exam wasn’t happening, and that the world had changed. I was angry about the attack. That this people were robbed of their lives, and their families were suffering.

And I was angry because I knew it meant more endless wars. More bush. More government spy programs. And more flag waving by a mob of riled up idiots. I hated myself for being cynical. Hoping I was wrong.

I was in the fourth grade. I never did enjoy the art class so I was able to go to the library and help with instead. Anyways, I was walking in and the librarian had the TV on (which was odd) but I got there just in time to see the second plane hit.

I didn’t understand it at the time but I had just witnessed history that a child shouldn’t ever have to see.

Sitting on my sofa reading the paper with the TV on mute before I had to go to work. Looked up and thought huh that’s a weird film to be on daytime TV. Realised it was breaking news and put the sound on. I think both planes had crashed at that point.

Left to get the bus to go do my shift in the pub I worked in. I remember there was a guy on the bus on his phone (still not ubiquitous at this point) saying “I’m not kidding man one of the fucking towers has completely collapsed”. I got to work, it was about 5pm at this point so the pub was starting to get a bit busier with some of our regulars already in, I tried telling them what had happened but I don’t think they really understand the enormity of it. There was no TV in the pub, and people didn’t have the internet on their phones, they all just went ‘huh’ and went back to their pints and conversations. It was only the next day after everyone had been home and seen the footage themselves that it was the only topic of conversation.

I knew at the time that it was the start of a war, and that everything was about to change, for the worse. I marched against the war with 1 to 2 million other people in London, because we knew it was wrong. All the politicians who still took us there were either liars, or dangerous idiots, or both. Tony Blair should be in prison.

I was 9 years old performing violin at the United Nations when it happened. I’ve never seen the streets and subways that crowded before or since.

At my birthday party.

I was in like 3rd grade, the word was passed on to us in real time but I didn’t really understand what had happened until later.

Also this is a clever way to get a feel for the distribution of ages of Lemmy users… I like it.

Vaguely heard about it on the radio on the way to high school. First period was “intro to flash animation” taught by a boomer who didn’t know we could access YouTube on our computers. Everyone was watching videos about what happened and ignoring the teacher. One kid was late and she asked “why are you late” and he was like “ there was a national emergency”