The Day that Changed Forever

Since I will be participate in my blogging day of silence in honor of those killed on 9/11, I thought I would post my memories of that day today.  This is what I wrote last year....

This date will never be the same to me. It will never just be another day in September. It will always be a day of solemnity and remembrance. September 11, 2001 forever changed the world as I knew it.

I was a college freshman at University in Connecticut. I had only been there 8 days when I woke up that Tuesday morning. I had an 8:00 am class that got out just before 9:00 am that day. As I walked out of class, I noticed a lot of students standing around the TV in the hallway. There was no sound but someone told me that a plane flew and hit into the World Trade Center. Just then I looked up at the TV and saw the plane flying into the tower. I thought it was video coverage of the first plane. I had no idea it was the second plane hitting.

I went back to my room to tell my roommate what I had just seen. She was getting ready to go out to breakfast with one of her friends and invited me along. I said I thought I should stay home and check out the news, but sheconvinced me it was probably just an accident and was no big deal. So out we went.

We got home a little before 11 and I called my dad {who had been scheduled to go to a meeting in NYC that afternoon before getting a plane to Europe. Thankfully he cancelled both of these as soon as the first plane hit}. 'Both towers are gone Mandy, and they've hit the Pentagon,' he said. 'Gone, what do you mean they're gone?!?!' I answered back, panicking. This was no accident. We were under attack. I had never been so scared in my entire life. I was alone at a new school where I really only knew one person {a friend of mine from home was a junior there}, I was away from my friends, and family, and oh yeah they put my school on lockdown. No one was allowed on or off campus.

I worried for my friends and family at home. I'm from North Jersey. So close you can see the NY skyline from the town next to me. I had friends in Washington DC who worked in the Capital building. I had a cousin and friends on lockdown at West Point. I spent the rest of the morning on the phone, attempting to contact every one I had ever met, praying for their safety.

The rest of the day was a blur. We all joined together for a mass at noon and a candlelight vigil at night. Cell phones rang out constantly, people hearing news of their loved ones whereabouts. We all clung together and sat for days, watching the news over and over again. There was nothing else we could do.

I went home that weekend to be with my family. My father had lost several of his close friends, and my best friend lost her cousin. I needed to be with them. As my father and I drove over the Tappan Zee Bridge I looked to my left at the NY skyline. Even a week later the cloud of smoke and dust still hung in the sky. It was so eerie and sad. That night my friend, sister, and I held a candlelight vigil on my front steps. We just needed to do something together, to pray, to mourn, and share our fears.

The smoke has cleared and the wreckage is gone, but what happened on 9.11.01 still affects my life every day. I have sent my husband, cousin, and many many friends off to war in retaliation of this horrible act. I have looked into the brave little face of one of my former students whose father was a fireman killed in the towers. I send my husband {who is in NYC today mourning the loss of former brothers in blue} off to work every day as a cop. He is also a first responder for his department, so if something like this happens again, he will be the one running into the buildings.

Today is a day of prayer, reflection, and remembrance. Today I woke up, dressed Little M and myself in patriotic clothes, clasped on my 'Jesse bracelet', and went downstairs to put on the TV. I watched the reading of the victims names...pausing to remember those I knew. I watch the History channel for the rest of the day, rewatching all the programs dedicated to the tragedy. My daughter will never know what the world was like before 9.11. She will grow up hearing the stories of bravery and heroism. She will be scared whenever her daddy goes to work, but more than that she will be proud. Her daddy, like all the ones before and since, is a Marine, a cop, a hero. He and his brothers and sisters in arms risk their lives every day. We must never forget to honor them and their sacrifice.

September 11, 2001 forever changed my life and the course of this country. We must always honor it. We must never forget.