11 Years Ago Today, America Changed

11 years ago today, it was a bright and sunny Tuesday morning, just like today in the north east.  I had a late night wasting my summer away playing video games when my brother burst through my door waking me up in a frantic “The World Trade Center blew up, we’re under attack, I can’t access the Internet, shit’s going down”.  Not sure if it was a dream or reality, I got out of bed to turn on the TV and see the most disturbing images of my life, a big cloud of smoke hovering over what used to be the World Trade Center.  Two buildings I stood directly under just over a year ago to that day.

I’m not sure if I said a word for the next hour or so, as I just sat and watched the news in utter disbelief, first hearing about how planes were being grounded, but there were still a few that were unresponsive.  After hearing about the pentagon and the other downed plane in Pennsylvania, I was in full panic mode not knowing what to expect, what was happening to our country.  Were we being invaded by another country?  Was I going to see Chinese tanks rolling down my street in a few days?

Pure panic set in as I tried to rationalize the situation, but logic was the furthest thing from my mind.  Between vomiting, I spent the entire day watching and worrying about all of those people in NYC who have lost their lives that day.  Every other worry I had in the world seemed to disappear as nothing else seemed important any longer.   My only remotely sigh of relief came sometime around 2am when I read on the ticker that the Chinese Government sent out their condolences, but by then the speculation of a rogue terrorist attack had already been swarming the airwaves all day regardless.

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This is probably the first time I’ve written down my events from that day 11 years ago, and I’m sure many others have their own stories to tell.   I know Big Brother is having an eviction tonight, but the feeds will be down until tomorrow’s episode, and there really is nothing to talk about inside the game.  I’d like to spend some time with my readers remembering the tragedy that unraveled on Sept 11th, 2001.  Feel free to share your stories, send your sympathies to the families or anything else you’d like to say.  Please, do not turn this isn’t a conspiracy theorist topic, or anything remotely hateful.