“It was messed up. I’m from Brooklyn, N.Y. You could smell the bodies at Ground Zero. I witnessed them jumping out the window.” – Davis

“I was (attending the University of California, Santa Barbara). Anyone that looked Muslim got beaten up, and a lot of them left the school (as a result). I was upset … You can’t profile people like that.” – Butcher

“We went from 8 a.m. to noon (on campus) looking up at the sky looking out for planes (?) Everyone was in a state of fear, just completely dumbfounded.” – Gatlin

“It didn’t really hit me until I got home (from school). It was pretty scary. I just thought, ‘How could this happen?'” – Corres

“I don’t watch the news much, but that day you just had to watch it.” – David E.

“I was really freaked out about it (…) I was kind of numb. I guess it didn’t really sink in.” – Cole

“I received phone calls all day from radio stations. But the one phone call that stood out was from a nursing home that asked me to come speak to their residents who were afraid because they were remembering Pearl Harbor and couldn’t understand what was going on.” – Ballard

“I remember CNN showing the jet crashing into the first tower. America was finally seeing the ghost of globalization was the first thing I remember thinking that day.” – Vasishth

“I remember calling the campus when the attacks occurred to make sure our emergency plan was in place. I was particularly afraid of there being copycats. We were pretty obsessed with this on 9/11, including President Koester.” – Hellenbrand

“I still remember thinking, ‘What can I say to my students the next day?’ (… )I couldn’t come up with any good things to say. Everything I thought of seemed meaningless and irrelevant.” – Alekseenko

“I was in shock. I just remember people saying it was going to be World War III.” – Gabrielsen

“Total shock when the towers fell. I don’t think there was a person alive who wasn’t surprised, including the engineers.” – Barley

“I think it’s terrible. I don’t understand the rationality of that kind of violence.” – Schiffman

“I don’t remember much. I didn’t know what the World Trade Center was. My history teacher explained everything.” – Quintanilla

We encourage you to also share your experience with the rest of the CSUN community. Post a comment and tell us what you remember on that tragic day six years ago.