Sep
The internet was slow. Yes, it could have been a router issue, or a service provider interruption, but something was different. I realized it wasn’t that the internet was slow; the major news sites were unavailable. I knew there was something wrong almost immediately but no sure exactly what.
Every morning I would sit down at my computer and have a bagel and read the news before I kicked off my day of coding. Annoyed by the fact that my morning routine was thrown off, I was about to head off and speak to the network team to determine the source of the network decay. Just as I was pushed my chair back a friend of mine, who sat just over the wall from me, started a conversation I will never forget.
KH: “Van, did you hear the World Trade Center was hit by a plane?”
Me: “Was it an accident? Was it small?”
KH: “I don’t know my wife just called me to let me know.”
My initial reacting wasn’t to think the United States was under a terrorist attack it was “how could some guy in a personal plane hit a building like that!” Now I understood why the internet was slow. Automatically I pick up the phone and call my father who happened to be just about to leave the house. He answers, unaware of what is going on. I don’t even say “Hi”.
Me: “Did you hear what happened in New York”
Dad: “No.”
Me: “Get to a TV, now.”
Dad: “I’ll call you back.”
Moments past and my phone rings again, it’s my father. Again, no one says hello. Pleasantries seem like a luxury at this point; he goes right into the conversation.
Dad: “A second plane hit the World Trade Center just as I turned on the TV, this is a terrorist attack.”
From that moment on the day becomes a blur – maybe I blocked out the details – but the first hour is burned into my memory like someone who has retina burn from looking at a solar eclipse. I remember every conversation, word for word, every emotion, every sensation like it just happened. No matter how much time passes that hour of my life feels like it just happened.
As the week went on the surreal sensation grew. Everyone was friendlier to one another, people kept waiting for the next shoe to drop, there were no planes flying in the air and the moment of silence at Noon, 9/14/2008…to be in a loud restaurant and have everyone stop talking at once, in a second, was eerie. It was a shared moment with 300 people I will never see again, but for that single moment it was as if we were all feeling the same emotion.
Time goes on but I will never be able to let go of the sensations from that day. For better or worse, 9/11/08 is a part of me until the day I no longer have the privilege of life on this earth.
Others Remember:
Rocco: Pope Benedict’s Prayer at Ground Zero
Dick Meyer: 9/11 & the Non-crisis of values
Bookworm: Horrifying picture
Michelle Malkin: Remembrance & Resolve
Lucianne Goldberg: What do I tell the pilot
Siggy: In search of a nation’s soul
Blackfive: Stand & Never yield
Ace:Remembers 9/11
Lorie Byrd: Never Forget
Day by Day: no words
J’s Cafe-Nette: Do You Remember?
Brutally Honest: “The room shook”
Andrea Shea King: We remember
David Warren: The Anniversary of Sept 10
Lileks: Archived, but prescient and worth re-reading
Bush 7, Terrorists 0
video tributes
PMJ: Remembering Not to Forget
AlQ’s failed attack on our economy
Built from the scraps: The USS New York
Rightvoices: We will never forget