Never Forget - 9 Years

I can't believe its already been 9 years since Sepember 11th. I'll always remember exactly where I was when it happened. I was in my Argumentation and Debate class in college and our professor had us go to the library to do some research. Because you could only be logged into one computer on the college network at one time, I had to go back to my dorm room and log off my computer there, so I could log onto one in the library. When I walked into the room, my roommate, who never had the TV on in the morning, did have the TV on and she was watching the news. I remember seeing her standing in the middle of the room and as soon as I opened the door she said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center." At that point, it was only one plane, so I stood there with her watching to see what was going on, and that's when the second plane hit.

I did go back to my class at that point, which let out early because by this point, the news was spreading around campus quickly. When I got back to my dorm room again, my mom was calling me to tell me that her boyfriend (now my step-father) was ok. He worked in New York, near the World Trade Center but had thankfully been in uptown New York that morning. The moment I got off the phone with my mom, the first tower collapsed, followed soon after by the second.

I have spent more time in New York City than in any other city. I grew up a little over an hour south of the city, and its impossible to count the number of times that I have been there. The fact that so many people seem to have forgotten what happened on this day 9 years ago, is so sad and tragic to me. I guess its easy to forget things when they don't happen close to you, but its still just shocking to me that some people can't even remember what today means. Its the city that I grew up in and my husband is one of the many people still fighting a war that began soon after September 11th. For me personally, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing the skyline of the city the way it looks now. When I was a little kid and we drove to North Jersey for any reason, I always remember the point on the parkway where you can start to see the NYC skyline. I used to get excited and say "Look there's the twin towers!" I guess no one will ever say that again. Maybe one day the skyline will start to look normal to me again, but I honestly can't imagine that it will.

* Never Forget *

(my dad and me - taken in 1988 from Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ)

(my mom and me - taken from the observation deck at the Statue of Liberty in 1988)

(This isn't the best picture of me, but this picture is special to me because it was taken in August 2001, from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. I never would have dreamed that just a few weeks later, these towers would be gone and I would never, ever see this skyline again.)