Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

On September 11, 2001 I was 25 years old. I was living alone in a 1-bedroom apartment in a new city, newly single, about 8 months into a new career. I was taking on the world. I had no idea how that world was about to change.

That morning I was at home in my Linden Hills apartment. I planned to be late for work that day because I was going to vote in the primary, so I was home at a time I would have otherwise been in my car driving. I turned on the TV to catch some morning news, unaware that one plane had already hit the WTC. I was glued to the footage. A few moments later, I watched in horror as the second plane hit. I couldn't believe what I was seeing; that it was real. I went in to work that day, because I wasn't sure what else to do. I remember televisions being set up so we could stay updated on what was happening.

I had flown to Washington, D.C. a couple of weeks earlier to visit my long-distance boyfriend. We actually broke up on the trip - I had come to the painful realization that both of us were meant to be in different parts of the country, and it was futile to keep going. I recall sitting in the airport with him before I boarded my plane; this was one of the last times that anyone but passengers would be allowed past security.  I remember being a bit frantic trying to reach him on September 11, because his brother worked at the Pentagon (found out the next day that everyone was OK).


There are a few events in life when you remember exactly where you were, what you were doing. I can count a few in my lifetime: the Challenger disaster; the day the first African-American President was elected; the evening the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. However, September 11, 2001 will be burned into my memory not only because of the terrible images and the pain it brought so many; but because of the ways all of our lives have changed and will never be the same. Ten years my wish is that we never forget, but that we have the strength to forgive, and the patience to get us there.

Where were you then, and where are you today?

Me in NYC (Ellis Island) April 2000.

In this photo: Michelle.