story1476.xml
Title
story1476.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-08-26
911DA Story: Story
On September 11th I drove to work (I was working as a counselor in a homeless shelter) in Alexandria, VA around 8:30am with a CD on in the car so I did not hear any local news. When I got to work to check email and voice mail, I became confused. My boyfriend emailed me that (Howard) Stern was talking about a plane hitting the WTC and my sister (in MI) was hysterical on my voice mail saying we were being attacked and she was watching it unfold on the TODAY Show. She is very emotional (like I) and overreacts and I had to see my clients so I figured I'd get back to it later. I am from New York though and the weirder the messages that came in on online news sites and all the more I wanted to know what was going on. I went next door to the large client TV and as I saw the WTC towers on fire it switched to the Pentagon. A client walked in and said "Oh is that what I heard" ANother client said she needed to meet with me NOW. When I asked her to wait since I wanted to find out what was going on. She said to me "But that has been on all morning and I am moving out" It was really hard for me to stay nonjudgemental in counselor fashion that day.
My first client was from NY so we did do some processing of the event or what we knew so far.
THe whole day was surreal. I figured that I lived closer to the Pentagon than I worked so I stayed and tried to work and in between trying watched it all unfold on TV. My family in NY finally got through to me. But it took days to locate all family and friends that lived or worked in NYC. Everyone I knew was fine, but there were many close calls. I felt blessed but hurt with the rest of the nation. I couldn't volunteer to use my counseling skills since I have not finished my counselor licensure. SHortly after though, I was offered a job with the Community Resilience Project, A FEMA funded 9-11 crisis counseling program. I am nervous about the upcoming anniversary. I still get upset, am hypervigilant, nervous when flying, and felt that sick feeling I felt on 9-11 when something triggers me such as the weather. That's my story and I have told it a zillion times on the way to healing....
My first client was from NY so we did do some processing of the event or what we knew so far.
THe whole day was surreal. I figured that I lived closer to the Pentagon than I worked so I stayed and tried to work and in between trying watched it all unfold on TV. My family in NY finally got through to me. But it took days to locate all family and friends that lived or worked in NYC. Everyone I knew was fine, but there were many close calls. I felt blessed but hurt with the rest of the nation. I couldn't volunteer to use my counseling skills since I have not finished my counselor licensure. SHortly after though, I was offered a job with the Community Resilience Project, A FEMA funded 9-11 crisis counseling program. I am nervous about the upcoming anniversary. I still get upset, am hypervigilant, nervous when flying, and felt that sick feeling I felt on 9-11 when something triggers me such as the weather. That's my story and I have told it a zillion times on the way to healing....
Collection
Citation
“story1476.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 12, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/16283.