9/11/01 was like yesterday to me. I was living in Washington, DC and commuting back and forth to work in Tysons Corner.
I was listening to the radio that morning as I got ready for work and heard the deejay say that President Bush was on his way to Florida to read schoolbooks to children. I stopped and thought, "That's weird. He has to meet with that diplomat at 10 a.m. Hmm...guess his schedule changed."
I remembered hearing on the news the night before that the 10 a.m. meeting at the White House was very important. So I thought it was strange that the President would go and just cancel like that. But the way the world works...meetings get canceled all the time.
I left my house to head towards the metro and a block from the metro I said to myself, "Today is going to be one day you will never forget." Even then, I thought my intuition was just nuts and I said to myself, "Ok, you're crazy...we'll see about that."
I arrived at the office and sat down at my computer right at 9 a.m. I first went to check my emails and saw the Yahoo! banner in the news section say, "President Bush to meet..." I sat there thinking, "I guess Yahoo! didn't get the updated itinerary for the President." Then the phone rings.
It's my boss' fiancee saying, "Turn on the news. The radio is saying that a plane just flew into the World Trade Center." I turned to my co-worker and told her what just happened. We proceeded to the conference room to turn on the TV. We stood and watched the first tower ablaze.
At the time, I had thought we were watching a recording, because I sat there saying, "I don't understand. Why is the building on fire and there's a plane getting ready to fly..." and then the second plane hit the second tower. All of us were just aghast at what was taking place before our very own eyes. We had witnessed terrorism with our own eyes for the first time.
As the minutes past, and as crazy as my intuition had been that day, I said out loud, "We need to stop focusing on New York. DC is about to be hit." I remember everyone turning and looking at me like I was crazy. Then just 5 minutes later, mass chaos in DC began.
A loud bang could be heard throughout the downtown DC area. When reports came out saying that the Pentagon had been hit, I looked out the window. While others were watching the story about the WTC, I stood there in shock staring at the smoke coming from the Pentagon.
This day was the first day I ever had a panic attack..and it will hopefully be my last day. America was under attack. We did not know who our enemies were. We did not know where they were coming from or who they would attack next. Being in the nation's capitol, we knew that we were a target, as well.
When people think of 9/11, they oftentimes forget about DC. We were all just as scared as the people in New York. America was scared.
Today, I sit back and think of how much I wish we could go back to 9/10/01. I think about the rights we have lost. I think about how stupid America has become. I think about these senseless wars. I think about how we are lied to every single day. I can handle the escalated security in our country, but I can't handle losing our rights to be free, all for the sake of our own safety.
Now that I live in NYC, and being as intuitive as I am, I can't go within three blocks of the World Trade Center. It's a different feeling down there. I can't even describe what I feel when I get too close to the World Trade Center. The first time, I didn't know I was a block away. I started to freak out in the backseat of my uncle's car. He asked what was wrong. I said, "I don't know. It feels like I can hear a 1000 souls screaming. They're all on fire and trapped underneath." I felt like I was about to go crazy.
I asked where we were. He said, "The World Trade Center site is a block away." I told him to just get out of there because I felt like I was going to lose it.
Since then, I've caught myself in that vicinity once, going to South Seaport. I started walking in the direction of the WTC, but I stopped at a corner. I literally froze. I could not move my body and I started taking steps back. My friends kept saying, "We only need to go one block over." I looked at them and asked, "Where are we? I mean...how close are we to the WTC site, because something is making me stop and I don't know what it is." They said, "Oh, it's only a few blocks ahead."
I got sick to my stomach and felt like I was going to vomit. I said, "I can't go any further. We can't go that way. I can't emotionally and intuitively handle going any further."
This past summer, when the steam pipe burst in NYC, I watched many people scrambling to leave the city. The looks of horror on their faces like this was another 9/11 just told me that we will never forget 9/11. It is like yesterday for all of us.
We may move on with our lives and live each day forgetting about that tragic day, but that's our way of coping with all that we have lost. We can only look forward and live each day to the fullest. What did not break us that day, only made us stronger. We carry on. We will not forget because 9/11 is a day that we carry within us always.