My 9/11

I was in NYC on 9/11, working for The Salvation Army on 14th street. My office was basically a box in the middle of the building, so no windows, no connection to the outside world unless I had the radio on, which I didn't. Just after the planes hit my dad called me, I guess because he wondered why he hadn't heard from me. He asked if knew what was going on, I thought he was just giving me a hard time because my day was spent in this box cut off from everything. He told me I needed to go upstairs where I could look out the windows, so I did. 

To my shock there was smoke billowing out of the towers, while I was trying to get the story of what happens someone screamed, we all turned to watch the 1st building crumble. Of course we were all horrified, not just because of what was happening, but because we all knew that we had coworkers that had already gone down there as first responders. There was no way to get in touch with those guys at that point(they were all physically OK in the end), all the phones were down, even the FDNY radio that was kept in the building wasn't working. No one really knew what was going on, all the high level people were called together(I don't recall why I was in there, as I was not one of these people), and it was quickly decided that anyone that wanted to, could leave. Then the room went silent as everyones thoughts turned to what we would have to do next. I remember the CEO started to talk, and then said, we need to pray, and thats what we did for a couple minutes. he said amen, and we started working. 

Things happened so fast that it all kinda blurs together. One thing I distinctly remember is that in what felt like a couple hours it was already the next day, many of us worked for 2-3 days before we ever even sat down, forget sleeping. While most of the world sat watching TV getting the story, we just did what needed to be done. 

I remember several days later, in the middle of the night, it was the first time I actually stood at the pile, I stopped and looked at the pile of rubble, just a few feet in front of me, I was shocked and overwhelmed, I had been so busy working that it didn't really sink in until then. The image was forever ingrained in my mind. 

To this day there aren't many days that go by that something doesn't trigger that image in my mind, it has forever impacted the way I look at the world, my life, my family, and even the way I look at politics. But today is not a day for politics, today is a day to remember those that were lost, and those who's lives were forever changed by the events of that day.