story4922.xml

story4922.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

Something would prove to be different today. I woke up shortly after 6:00 a.m., and for whatever strange reason something I was compelled to turn on the television. As part of the late breaking story, there in front of me was a burning tower, I knew it was the World Trade Tower, but I couldn't figure out what had happened. Upon paying closer attention I realized a plane had gone through it, but never did I even imagine that it was a terrorist attack. My first reaction was that it was an accident something had gone wrong with a plane and it had crashed into the tower. Little by little as I listened to the news, I knew it wasn't an accident, and as I was watching the second tower was hit by a plane. The president of our company was on a plane back from Europe. This person,was also the brother of my best friend. In that very moment, personal differences didn't matter anymore, the only thing that mattered was making sure he was ok, and letting my best friend know despite the chaos, his brother was ok.
I called one of my work colleagues and first tried to establish where he was at and account for everyone who might be traveling. It was a feeling of just wanting to make sure that all those I knew that were not close by, were safe. We made some calls and contacted everyone except my friends brother. We discovered within a few hours that his flight was in route and he would be re routed to Canada for landing. For whatever reason once we all knew where he was at- we all felt alot better, but needles to say we just wanted someone to hear his voice and confirm what we felt. I got ready for work and on my drive to work I noticed that there weren't too many cars on the road. When I got to our building since it was a high rise, we were asked to pack up our things and head home where it was safe until further notice. It was a day that I will never forget, such a feeling of helplessness and insecurity in a nation that has represented freedom and security all my life. I knew then and there that this world as I have known it would not be the same for my young son. I felt the fear and state of helplessness for his growing up in fear. All day long, and for the weeks that followed we watched our television sets, we cried for the losses and for what had happened to our country. America the beautiful you lost so many children on 9-11-01, I will never forget. God Bless our nation.