I will never forget September 11, 2001. My roommate, Sal, woke me up and told me to put the TV on. I started watching seconds after the second plane hit the World Trade Center. I thought I was going to throw up. I hoped I was dreaming. I was watching the news but it did not look like the news, it looked like a movie. I prayed as I watched the chaos on the TV. .
I called home to make sure my Mom had the TV on. Then I called all of my friends and family who work in the Loop, to make sure they were on their way home. I was unable to get through to most of them, all of the phone lines, both celluar and to the office buildings, were busy. I stopped trying to get through once WGN news reported Chicago office buildings were closing as a precautionary measure. .
As the towers collapsed, I watched the most frightening thing I had ever seen. The only way I can describe seeing the towers fall, the people running through the streets of New York literally for their lives and smoke and debris engulf the city, is surreal. .
I never even imagined anything that could possibly cause such extreme feelings of anger, fear and sorrow. There has never been any event, on any level, including personal, which has moved me like the attacks on September 11, 2001.
On the evening of 9/11/01, as Congress sang "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capital Building, I shed a tear. I cannot remember the last time I got that emotional. I know I never cried for strangers before that. I have never been the type of person who felt a great deal of concern for people who I do not personally know. What happened that horrendous day happened to all of us, on some level. .
I watched more TV the two weeks following 9-11 than I probably did the two years before 9-11. I was afraid I would miss something. I put the volume up all the way when I went to the bathroom so I could hear what was being reported. I took the fastest showers of my life, so I would miss the least amount of news as possible.
