15 years later

9/11...at one point in time it was just another day.  And then it wasn't.  It's hard for me to believe it's been 15 years since that day.  It changed so many lives and impacted every one of us in ways we may not even realize.  It changed America.

It started just like any other day.  I got up and took Nicol to school and went to work.  I'm sure I stopped at the Marathon and picked up a Mt Dew just like I did every other day. I got into the office, turned on my radio, and started my work day.  I remember Tim Baron's voice on the radio telling us about the first plane crashing into the first WTC Tower.  I remember thinking what a horrible tragedy that was...and then the second plane hit.  I remember the immediate thought "Are we under attack?" It was a scary thought.  I made a call and wondered about the safety of my daughter...she was on a field trip at school that day. Everyone in our office began to gather in the training room to watch the events of the day unfold on the TV we had there.  I couldn't join them; I needed to keep working and to be alone.  I kept listening to the radio and heard about the crashing of the other planes and about the Towers falling to the ground. I stayed there, alone in my office the rest of the day.

I made it through the day at work and came home.  Up to that point, I hadn't seen any of the TV coverage of the day.  But at home, coverage of what had happened was everywhere; there was nowhere to escape from it.  I remember thinking I just wanted it to be over.  Hours and days of coverage on this event...and selfishly, I just wanted it to end so I could get back to my normal life. I wasn't heartless, I knew how many people had been affected by this tragedy, but I thought that it was time to move forward.   But for hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of people, they couldn't just move on...they were there, living this horrible nightmare.  They had loved ones in the buildings or on the planes, they were the families of the first-responders, they were on vacation, they were normal people just like me who went to work that day like they had many other times, but then it was no longer like just any other day.

Unless you've lived under a rock, if you are an American who was alive on that fateful day, you've seen the coverage.  The flames from the planes crashing into the buildings, the towers crumbling to the ground, the people in the streets scared and confused.  I haven't gone out of my way to watch any of the news specials or features regarding 9/11, but I know what it looked like in New York City that day...out here from the safety of my living room through the screen of a TV. But last night I watched some of the 15th anniversary coverage and got a better glimpse of what it was like there on that day. Our experience is so much different than those who lived and worked in NYC...especially of those who were right there on that day.

I have a good friend, Janie, who I've known for about 10 years.  She's a New Yorker and she was there, right there at the heart of it all that day.  I remember the first time she told me that she had walked through those buildings on her way to work that day.  It made it a little more real for me.  15 years later it is still raw for her.  She doesn't speak much about the happenings of the day or what she saw, but I know that it has shaped who she is today and is still very real for her. There are so many others out there, just like her, who really lived through this day.  This is an American tragedy, but to them it was so much more personal.  So, on this September 11, 15 years later,  I send my love and prayers and my admiration for their courage to make it through the day.  We're thinking of you all.