Remembering September 11, 2001: 10 years later

September 11, 2001 was a day that no one will ever forget and on its 10th anniversary, as we all prepare to remember it on Sunday, I can't let it pass without comment.  It certainly is one of the most prominent (and not in a good way) days in my life to date.  I hope that it remains this way - that nothing more tragic will ever happen to our country again.

I was living in DC at the time and worked two blocks from the White House.  I was getting hot chocolate (my morning routine) from the kitchen in my office and stood with colleagues in front of The Today Show.  The first plane had already hit the first World Trade Tower and right then watching TV, I saw the second plane hit.  I remember thinking that it looked like a small, private plane.  Boy was I wrong.  Just moments later the fire alarm in the building went off.  I grabbed my purse and took off down the stairs.  I've never left a building during a fire alarm before but that morning my instinct was to flee.  Ever since that day, when a fire alarm goes off, I leave the building until it is confirmed as a drill or safe.

Outside, a perfectly perfect Fall day in September with clear blue skies, the energy of the city was amped up.  People were in a panic.  Rumors were flying through the streets.  The State Department is on fire.  There are bombs going off on the Mall.  A plane has hit the Pentagon - clearly NOT a rumor.  More planes are on their way to DC to hit the White House.  The Capitol.

A tourist with her kids in a stroller stopped me - confused.  She didn't know what to do.  I didn't know what to say.  So I said, go back to your hotel.  She told me her hotel was on Capitol Hill.  I shrugged my shoulders and said I don't know and good luck.

My cell phone wasn't working and so I found the closest pay phone that I could find and called my mom and my boyfriend at the time.  I walked to my boyfriend's office, which was about a 10 or so block walk.  On the way, I noticed military jeeps and Humvees with large weapons posted on nearly every or every other block.  I have no idea where they came from or how they got there so quickly.  The streets were buzzing with people walking/running/scurrying frantically to get home.  To find their loved ones.  To feel safe.

Luckily, my boyfriend and I were able to catch a cab who took us to my apartment - he took back roads and avoided the dead still traffic of people trying to escape from the city.  The radio was on and we heard the sound of the first Tower fall.  I don't think I grasped the magnitude of this moment until later when we got home and turned on the television.

Moments after we got home, we watched the TV in stunned silence as the second Tower fell just a minute before 10am.  

After some time watching the horrifying events, I couldn't take it anymore.  I needed to get out of the house and away from the TV.  So we went for a walk down Connecticut Avenue, which is one of the largest streets in DC.  It was deserted.  I had never heard or seen DC so quiet.  So still.  No cars.  No planes.  Just nature as if we were in the woods on a hike.

Occasionally there was the sound of a fighter jet as they were crisscrossing the skies in protection but there was hardly any other noise.  Nearly every shop, restaurant and business was shuttered closed.  The exception, an independent bookstore up the street was open.  We went in and a handful of people were inside.  A small TV on in the corner with the running broadcast of the events of the day.

For months after September 11, I and many of my friends and colleagues lived in fear.  It was a post-traumatic syndrome effect of sorts.  Even though we were not directly harmed the sound of sirens and other "things" that I can't remember were startling and nerve-wracking.  We were waiting for something more.

I don't personally know anyone who died in the attacks though I have friends and family who do.  Like everyone in this country who was old enough to know what happened that day I will never forget it.  I will never forget how the events of a single day changed the way we live our lives.

Source

Ten years later the memories of this day are still fresh in my mind though some of the small details have been forgotten.  My heart goes out to those who lost their loved ones and I hope that while their loves ones are not forgotten that they have been able to find peace and a new life filled with a different kind of happiness.