Ms. Mayo

I was a undergraduate student at Saint Joseph College in Connecticut. I remember walking across the quad with a group of friends to go to my Research Methods class and walking into a room of complete silence. Everyone was looking at the television that the professor had turned on, and none of us could believe what was happening was real. My friend Emily was sobbing because her Aunt worked at the Pentagon and she didn't know if her Aunt was okay. My sister was working for Wolfe Associates (a sports marketing firm) at the top of the Prudential Building in Boston and I remember being petrified that the terrorists were going to go after that building next since it is the tallest in Boston. I tried over and over again to get in touch with her but all of the cell phone lines were busy and I couldn't get through. I called home to Shrewsbury and was sobbing on the phone with my parents because none of us could get a hold of her. She finally called me sobbing, and told me how the SWAT team had come to her office and evacuated all of them down the stairs, and the "T" was so crowded she hadn't been able to get the one she needed to get home. That was the first time in a very, VERY long time that I told my sister that I loved her. And now, there isn't a conversation or email we exchange where I don't tell her. I remember right after 9/11 there was this immense feeling of silence because all air traffic had stopped. And I remember being on the field for soccer practice about a week later...the entire team of 27 girls and our three coaches stopping all of our drills and just staring up as the first airplane since the attacks crossed the sky. This feeling of fear was replaced by this immense feeling of pride that no matter what, we were going to make it through all the sadness. And I remember that even though we knew they couldn't hear us all the way up there...we all cheered that plane on.