`It's the scariest day of my life'.

• Position: Voices - Students tell their stories of the September 11 terrorists attacks - Brief Article

MOST AMERICANS SAW THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK ON TV. STUDENTS AT NEW YORK'S STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL, JUST FOUR BLOCKS AWAY, SAW THE TERROR FROM THEIR CLASSROOM WINDOWS. HERE, IN EXCERPTS FROM THEIR SCHOOL NEWSPAPER, THE SPECTATOR, THEY TELL THEIR STORIES.

I felt the building shake, but I couldn't tell if it was the building shaking because I was shaking.

--KAMELI CHOW, 17

"So what did you learn in school today?" On September 11, I gave a horribly truthful answer to this familiar question: "I learned that it is easy to tell a falling body from a falling piece of debris because bodies fall much faster."

--DYLAN TATZ, 17

If this were a movie evacuation, it would have been fun; my friends wouldn't be crying; I wouldn't be crying. If this were a movie ... the Twin Towers would not be scattered across Lower Manhattan and that dark cloud would have not caught in my throat as I walked away as fast as I could. But this isn't a movie. It's the scariest day of my life.

--LU HAH, 15

If I die here today, who knows what can happen. I believe, still, that people are inherently good.

--Found in a notebook at Stuyvesant on September 11.

It's a different world down here. You breathe different air, the people move differently, and everywhere there is a quiet sense of urgency. Round here, there's no time for politics, despair, or flag-waving. As we walk away from the school, I see the site--the twisted skeleton of a dead animal, a giant whale. We hike through the empty streets carrying philosophy textbooks.

--BEN MAGARIK, 17

Every night I make myself stay up as late as I can in order to avoid any difficulty in falling asleep or any nightmares. I try to see my friends and do fun, "normal" things to get my mind off what happened. It works temporarily. I am no stranger to grief, as my mother died when I was...