story71.xml

story71.xml

born-digital

story

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no

2002-02-21

Before I tell my story I want to make it known that this tragedy has not left me to this day. I still have frequent nightmares that wake me to a cold sweat. Just last night I had a dream that I looked out of my parents' house front window to see planes landing and crashing on their quiet street in central Virginia. Anytime I see footage from that dark day, I tear up and think back to how horrifying and life-altering that event was for me.

It was about 8:15 AM on September 11th and I was making some calls at work to prospective customers. I closed myself in the conference room where I could concentrate and remove myself from the noise of the office. At just after 8:30 a colleague burst into the room and urged me to follow her. I was very annoyed because I was right in the middle of a telephone call at the moment. As soon as the call was over I hung up and left the room to see what all of the fuss was about. I entered her office and, on her 6 inch mini-television, I saw one of the World Trade Center towers burning. She told me that an airplane had hit the tower. I took a moment and thought to myself, "what a stupid pilot." As we watched for a couple more minutes I witnessed the second plane come in and hit the second tower. I was in disbelief. It was at that moment that I thought "terrorists."

We continued watching the television in horror as the towers burned. It was disheartening to hear Katie Couric obviously trying to hold back her tears. It all felt so surreal yet so close.

A few moments later my office building shook. I thought "oh my God, what was that?" Moments later NBC reported that the Pentagon had been hit by a commercial aircraft. At this point I was near hysterics. I was barely able to grasp onto whatever sense of reality I still had and keep myself somewhat in control. There were rumors that a bomb had gone off at the State Department. I feared for my life -- I could not fathom what was going to happen next.

Instants later, another blast shook my building. The lights went out for a few seconds and then came back on. I thought I had died. I could feel my heart beating uncontrollably in my chest as I thought of what to do. The only thinkg I could think of was the safety of my friends and family. In a momentary loss of control, I turned to the president of my company and yelled, "I'm getting the f@#$ out of here" without any comprehehnsion of what I had just said to him. I stormed out of the office, to my car, and onto the backroads to my apartment in the City of Alexandria.

The drive home was scary. At one point a police car coming the opposite direction on a two-lane road passed the car in front of it, nearly hitting me head on. I was driving 50 mph on a 35 mph road and people were flying past me. Once I got to my apartment I could see the smoke on the horizon floating up from the Pentagon. The tears started flowing.

I rushed inside, picked up the phone and tried calling every person I know. It was extremely difficult to get through -- the circuits were busy on almost every call I tried to make.

After I found that my loved ones were safe, I tuned to CNN and wathed the horror unfold even further as the twin towers fell right in front of my eyes. I could not fathom what was happening. I could see it plain as day, but my brain refused to believe it. To this day I cannot hear a plain flying low overhead and not cringe.

I have a scar from that day that will haunt me for the rest of my life.