September 11th - Where Were You?

I was living and working in Raleigh, NC, married to Jason, and about to move up to Newport, RI and eventually to San Diego for Jason to start his career as a Naval officer.

I remember that Fall morning being particularly beautiful, and I even noted to myself how gorgeous it was as I looked out the window of my coveted window cube at Manpower Professional. Around 9:00 a.m. EST, my boss Chris came over and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I immediately assumed it was an accident... I immediately went to the CNN page and the site was unavailable because so many people were trying to access it at the same time.

We turned on the TV in the conference room to check out the news and by then, the second plane had struck. I knew immediately what it meant - terrorism, tragedy, war. Not that I'm this incredible omnipotent or politically intelligent person (I'm SO not!), but I just felt the enormity of what was going to happen immediately. I knew that my (then) husband was going to be right in the middle of it. And here we were with this new president... I freaked out! I couldn't stop crying...

And then the towers fell, and I wept more for those that died. I didn't get anything done that day - I read the internet all day long and rushed home to watch the news. I was transfixed on the news, just like the rest of the country, for weeks, stunned and obsessed with figuring out what on earth had just happened!

About 2 weeks later, we moved up to Newport to live on the locked-down Navy base for a few weeks of training. On our way up, we stopped in DC and in NYC, but didn't see Ground Zero - I wasn't emotionally prepared to see what had happened, and am still glad we didn't go. I do have pictures of NYC, while sightseeing, and in the air still stood a haze between the buildings and city lights. I'll never forget it.

May the families and loved ones of the victims of that horrible day feel some sort of healed heart by now. And may those victims never be forgotten.