9/11 Where were you when?

I remember that day like it was yesterday. I probably always will. 9/11 is one of those events in history like the assassination of JFK that will always be with us. Those of us who are old enough to remember will always be able to tell our kids, and our grand kids what we were doing when our world changed forever.

I was at work. Same place I work today but a different building. I was 25 years old, not married, not a mother yet. I was still dating Joe and we would get engaged about 3 weeks later. I was sitting at my desk and I received an email from a friend of mine that worked in another office that just said "a plane hit one of the world trade center towers" I remember thinking and emailing him back, "whoa, that sucks" having NO idea the depth of what was going on. I remember thinking it was a small plane in the wrong place because jets just did not fly that close to the city. I did not even bother to look it up on CNN.com. Why would I? Nothing really bad ever happens in the US right?

It was not until he emailed me again telling me about the 2nd plane that it really registered that something big was happening. By now the news was filtering through my office and people were turning radio's on to listen to the news. By now we knew that our nation was under attack.

I called Joe right away. He is in the Air National Guard and works full time at a base here in town. I remember asking him what was happening and him telling me that he did not know. Eventually he was locked down at the base, no one was allowed to leave until further notice which ended up being about 9 or 10 that night.

The day went on, 2 more planes crashed and the entire world was scared. That night I was glued to the TV watching with tears the towers fall again and again on the news. I tried to sleep that night and kept waking up and turning the TV on all through the night.

I did not personally know anyone who was hurt or lost their life that day. My roommate's best friend was SUPPOSED to be working downtown that day but she had called in sick. It's little details like that that I wont ever be able to forget.

I was able to visit Ground 0 this year and even though the memorials have been taken down and the area replaced by construction fences to rebuild I still felt the sadness to be standing there where so many people died. When Joe and I were in DC this year we got to see the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon and see where the building was rebuilt.

We all have different political views in this country. That fact that we can HAVE those opinions is one more reason why we are proud to be Americans. Regardless of your political beliefs 9/11 brought us all together and I hope that no one ever forgets that day and what it did to our country.

Where were you?