Студент из Нью-Йорка вспоминает, как мир изменился, пока он спал 11 сентября 2001 года

Adam Conrad was a fresh graduate from Bridge City High School at the age of 18 when he moved to New York to attend Marymount Manhattan College to pursue a degree in theater with his friend Bridie Coughlan. "I had just graduated high school on Friday and I had auditions for Marymount Manhattan College," said Conrad "So our parents dropped us off on Sept. 1, 2001, in New York City and we had just started school." He said it was exciting being in the big city, somewhere that was so busy. "It was a theater kid's dream." On Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed while Conrad slept. "We lived midtown 55th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue so it was a pretty good place north of where 911 was going on," said Conrad. It was about five miles from ground zero. "I had class that started at 10 so I was actually sleeping when it happened," said Conrad. "My friend Joanna from back home called me that morning and she's 'hey the World Trade Center is on fire.'" He didn't think much about it because there were fires every day in New York. He hung up the phone and got ready for school. Conrad walked to class. It seemed like an ordinary day. "I got to the school; there was an announcement that New York City was under attack and that we needed to return to our dorms and await further word," said Conrad. "At that point in time, I started walking back towards the dorm and when I did, I started seeing people walking up and they were covered in ash like soot. They were all gray. I was like well that's weird," he said. "Then I remember a woman on her cell phone in a pantsuit, high heel shoes, covered head to toe in gray stuff and she was just screaming and crying and yelling into her phone. Right about that time I was at the Queensborough bridge which is part of midtown," said Conrad. "I kind of climb up on this scaffolding thing because I wanna try to see why all these people are you know, in a mass exodus seen across the bridge. They're walking across the bridge and it's just heads; all you can see is heads of people walking. That is when I realized something big was happening." He called his mom. "Oh, thank God you called me," she said. "I've been trying to get through to you." The cell service was not that good at the time and she hadn't been able to get through to him. "I went back to the dorms. The dorms were brand new so we didn't even have TV yet and so we were just waiting. We were hearing reports coming in from the phone or reports from resident advisors and that kind of thing. I didn't even see the first TV footage of the plane until I think it was the yearly special the next year Sept. 11, 2002, on the Oprah show. That is the first time I saw the planes actually hit the building." He saved all the newspapers for the next couple of days. "I still have it at home somewhere," he said. "So, I knew everything that had happened, I just had never watched any of the news footage because we didn't have it repeated at the time. It's not like cell phones played it like it does now. Twenty-five years ago, we didn't have TV's in our hand." There was a lot of uncertainty. "You're scared 'cause we didn't know if more was coming or if it was an isolated event. It was a very uneasy time being in the city," said Conrad. "It was a weird time to live in and live through. I don't think my story is you know fascinating, it's just it was an interesting time to live in, especially being there in the heart of it all."