At about 8:30 a.m. on September 11th I was sitting in my cubicle in a corporate office building about ready to go to into a project meeting. I had arrived at work early and I had not been listening to the news. My very young (at that time) children were attending a school in another city. My parents were alive (at that time) and living in Pennsylvania. My husband was at work.
A coworker was watching CNN news on his computer monitor. Personally, I was oblivious to anything going on except for the presentation that I was about to give in the project meeting. Suddenly, my co-worker said loudly and to no one in particular, "a plane has just crashed into the Twin Towers in New York city." I remember thinking to myself, "that can't be right, you must have misunderstood what the newscaster said."
I walked over to his cubicle. Together we watched the news footage of the plane hitting the tower. Still, I never dreamed that it could have been an attack. A pilot flying 'under the influence' of something or other is actually the first possibility that came to my mind. I was wrong.
You can read a timeline of the events on September 11, 2001 on Fox News.
About this time another coworker, who arrived later in the morning, walked into the cubicle. As she had been driving in to work she had been listening to news reports and she was clearly traumatized. "Planes are hitting buildings on purpose," she said. "And they're everywhere." She was crying. (Our offices were near a major airport and there were always lots of planes overhead.)
My first thoughts went to my children, at school in a city over an hour away from my work. Were they okay? I had no way of knowing. I also tried to call my elderly parents and couldn't even get a telephone connection. The lines were tied up.
Things went quickly after that. People all throughout the office started crying. No one was getting work done. Some people were scared for loved ones in New York or Pennsylvania. Our boss finally came in and told us all to go home. I picked the kids up from school early and met my husband at home. I was unable to reach my parents until a few days later. I was fortunate in that I suffered no personal loss on that day, but many people did.
I'll always remember September 11, 2001 as the day that I stopped taking my life for granted. For the first time, I realized that what happened on September 11th could happen at any time to any of us anywhere. My own process of self-examination that began at that time ultimately led to my leaving the corporate world six months later.
Today I will join many other Americans as I remember the losses that we suffered on this day five years ago. You can read more about public Memorial Services for 9/11 on FoxNews.
What about you? Did you take stock of your life on 9/11? Leave a comment and let us know
» The September 11th Wake-up Call: Remembering What it Meant to You from
A look at the impact that 9/11 had on one mother's life. [Read More]
Tracked on: September 11, 2007 12:43 PM | Permalink to Trackback