When the towers fell...

Everyone is posting where they were when the twin towers fell. It is crazy to me to have been alive during something so important in American history that everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing. My mom used to tell me she knew what she was doing when they announced Elvis was dead or Kennedy was shot and I can't believe I will have a similar story to tell Noah someday. On September 11, 2001, I was at work. I was the only one there and I listened to a country radio station out of Ft. Smith. They started talking about it and said there was coverage on tv. I went to the break room and turned on the tv. About 5 minutes after I turned the tv on I saw the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower. I was confused. I thought it was a replay of the first tower being hit, but then I saw the smoke and fire still coming out of the 1st tower. It took me a minute to realize that I just saw a plane crash live. Not too long after that a co-worker got there, and I told her I wasn't sure what was going on but planes were crashing into buildings in New York. It sounds so obvious now, but I was so naive to a terrorists attack that I just didn't have a clue as to what was going on and how serious it was. Then, the news started saying it was confirmed terrorists attacks, I was shocked.

I lived in a little perfect world where nothing that bad was going to happen. Nothing that serious could happen in America. It was like the bright future I had always dreamed of was all of a sudden threatened. I couldn't help but wonder what bad thing was going to happen next. I was scared. I remember sitting up until late hours watching the news coverage, and then I had finally had enough. I felt so guilty when I would try to find something else to watch, like I was un-American. It didn't matter what channel I turned it to - even MTV was running news coverage. Eventually the news coverage all died down and life returned back to a guarded normal. It will never be back to the old normal, but the new normal is wiser and more practical - so it is better in my opinion.

I saw advertisements asking people to do something special in memory of those who died that day. People were doing things such as calling loved ones, or visiting friends they hadn't seen in awhile. Here is what I did - I spent the day with him:

Noah and Daddy texting eachother :)

He is the most precious gift I have ever received. I held him tighter and thanked God that he will not have the memories I have of seeing the 9/11 attacks unfold. He will, hopefully, never have that unsafe, unsure feeling about his future due to an attack on the wonderful country he is part of. He was born during war-time, he has not lived yet when this country wasn't at war. I hope that someday he gets to experience that. I remember those days. Man, this is making me sound so old! I hope you did something memorable on the 10th anniversary of September 11th - we all need some happy memories of this day. That is something the terrorists cannot control.