Vanderbilt students recall 9/11 ten years later

Shot and produced by Kyle Blaine


Where were you? What were you doing? How did you feel the day the world changed?

Ten years later, people still talk about September 11, 2001 in these terms. For most college students, the answers to these questions tell a story of a common experience shared by a generation that was still in grade school on the day of the attacks.

For 10 and 11 year olds, the world they knew when they woke up on 9/11 was not the same world they fell asleep in that evening. In the coming days, weeks and months, every American would know about al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and terrorism.

"9/11 stands as kind of that first time that I really understood that there were people who didn't like the United States," said junior Shelby Begany.

"After 9/11 everything felt a lot more surreal, nothing felt as safe as it used to," said junior Stephen Siao. "The America that we knew had just changed completely."

Junior Amanda Lettman was in her fifth grade classroom in Queens, New York when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

"From my classroom I could see the smoke right away," Lettman said. "I remember being able to see the Twin Towers all the time and the Empire State Building, everything, but we looked outside our window and all we saw was smoke."

For those who couldn't see the New York City skyline from their windows, the events of the day flashed across television screens, as the nation began to realize that the United States was under attack.

"We had just started class for the day and we heard that a plane had struck the first tower and so my teacher turned on the TV and we watched the events unfold from there throughout the day," Begany said. "Looking back now, I am really surprised that we watched the entire news coverage all day long."

Sitting in her fifth grade English classroom at Madison Elementary School, junior Liesel Burkes said her eyes were fixed on the television screen.

"I couldn't comprehend what was going on because you see these towers that were a famous part of the New York skyline and then planes just going through them and the falling so fast and there was just so much mayhem," Burks said. "It was like a movie."

For Jordan Reeve, a junior, the attacks on the World Trade Center hit close to home. Her best friend's dad worked in the World Trade Center, and he did not survive the attacks.

"I looked around for (my best friend) and I couldn't find her and I think my initial reaction was 'wow something actually did happen, something is wrong' and I was very distraught," Reeve said. "I had never had a friend who had had so much grief."

In the wake of the events, the country came together in an unprecedented expression of nationalism. Begany said her father went out and bought an American flag for the first time and hung it outside their house.

For Lettman, the sense of community in New York kept the city together during the dark days following 9/11.

"We felt a sense of community," Lettman said.

"Whether you knew someone or not, you were crying for them because you felt the compassion, the sympathy and empathy whether it was you or not."


Burks said President Bush's leadership in the aftermath of the attacks had a profound effect on her.

"I'll never forget President Bush going through the rubble of the World Trade Center and having his megaphone and saying 'we're strong as a country, you can't get us, no matter how hard you try, we're America, we're strong, we're united' and that was incredible," Burks said.

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