Healthy Living Natural Beauty: 10 Years After 9/11

Sunday, September 11, 2011

10 Years After 9/11

For anyone here in America 10 years ago today, if you were old enough I'm sure you can remember that day very clearly. September 11, 2001 I arrived at work just after the first plane hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. I was sharing an office with one of my co-workers and we turned on our radios to hear the reports. As we were listening to the radio they broke the news that a second plane had hit the other tower. We were in shock. It was so unbelievable that this could be happening. I had an Uncle living in New York city who was going to be helping with the polls as they were having some sort of election and he told me the night before he was going to be a helping people get signed in to vote. So I tried calling him to see if he was okay but you could not get through on any of the phone lines. I called my parents and grandparents and we all talked about how shocked we were, how we could not believe this was happening and how scared it made us feel. After calling our families, my office partner and I went to talk with some other co-workers and our company had set up one of the conference rooms for employees to go inside and view CNN to watch the story unfold. It was such a sad and shocking day for us. As we walked through the hallways of our company some of our co-workers were crying. When we got to the conference room we watched as the news was reporting the tragedy. I watched in sheer disbelief as I saw the billowing smoke coming out of the towers. I was praying the firefighters could get everyone out of the building safely. As I watched the news, suddenly the first tower collapsed. I blurted out "What about all those people in the building, what about all those firefighters?" it got completely quiet in the room and we all hung our heads down as some cried. I was in shock. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. That day we also witnessed a plane crashing into the Pentagon and the remnants of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. It's a feeling I will never forget. In the days that followed I talked to my Uncle and he was alright but like all the rest of us, he was in shock about what had happened. The feeling in our country for the next few days was so strange; it felt like life as we knew it had changed forever. The security and safety we all took for granted was gone so quickly. For the first few days I noticed the quiet in the sky as all planes had been grounded, it was the first time in my life I hadn't heard jets flying in the skies above. We all wondered what would happen next. Since then our lives have changed in many ways. We have grown stronger and we have rebuilt at Ground Zero. Today there have been ceremonies that mark the new landscape and the memory of those we lost. We will not forget what happened that day, but like a Phoenix we too have risen from the ashes. This tragedy ties us together and the memorials keep us strong. For me, 10 years later, I am now writing my blog and sending my thoughts and prayers to all the people who lost loved ones that day. Below are some pictures of today's ceremonies and the memorials.