Mariana van Zeller

I'd done an internship there and worked there.

And they called me and said, hey, turn on your television.

And it was when the first tower had collapsed.

And they said, turn on your television and see what's happening.

I had no idea this was happening.

And they said, we need you to go to Midtown and do that.

We have no Portuguese journalists in Manhattan.

All our journalists are in D.C.

or they are outside of Manhattan.

Manhattan had been locked down.

You need to go down and do the live reporting for us of what's happening.

And suddenly my cell phone started ringing and it was my mother who was crying and begging me not to leave the house.

And I had to explain to her, mom, this is like my dream is to become a journalist.

It's part of my job and I have to go.

Anyway, an hour later, I was at the rooftop of this building surrounded by all these journalist heroes of mine that I grew up watching on live television.

and shaking.

I was so, so nervous.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to put two words together.

So nervous.

And I ended up doing my live report, and it all went well, and I was ecstatic.