Remembering 9/11

9/11, such a sad day in our history.  I remember it like it was yesterday.

I live in Upstate NY, several hundreds of miles from NYC.  I was working from home at the time and I used to stay up working really late (3-4am) so I would sleep late in the mornings.  Everyone knew not to call me early. 

Well, that day, my phone rang and woke me up.  I reached for the phone and grumbled a "hello".  It was my mom.  She told me she was sorry and didn't want to wake me, but this was important - to go turn on my tv, we were being attacked by terrorists.  I flew out of bed and went into the living room and turned on the tv.  It was on all the stations.  That image of the planes hitting the twin towers was forever embedded in my head.   What a horrible sight.  Seeing people jumping from the buildings that were on fire.  Then seeing the buildings themselves just collapse into the ground.  People fleeing for their lives. Monstrous clouds of dust and rubble.  Seeing people with bruises, cuts, broken limbs, trying to save their own lives, trying to find help.   

Then I hear the Pentagon was hit by another plane, and shortly after that a plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.  So many unnecessary lives lost.  All of these innocent people were murdered by terrorists.

It was the most tragic thing I'd ever witnessed.  I was glued to the tv for weeks.  I didn't work for days.  I think pretty much everyone in the US had put their lives on hold to watch this horrific event unfold in front of our eyes.  I couldn't stop watching it on tv - I wanted so badly to hear them announce they've found a bunch of people alive and they were rescuing them.  But there were no more rescues, it was now a recovery mission.  To recover as many dead bodies as possible.

It was so horrible I kept asking myself if it was really happening?  Am I having a nightmare or is this really happening?  Someone, please wake me up from this nightmare.  It was not just a nightmare.  We were attacked by al-Qaida terrorists.   Such a sad, sad day in U.S. history.  

So please take a moment to stop and remember the victims of 9/11 today.  And remember to be thankful for what we do have.  It could all be taken away in a matter of seconds.