Note: This blog is a little different today. It’s a remembrance of the day our world changed forever and is dedicated not only to the people who lost their lives on that horrible day but more so to the people who have had to live their lives without them.
Before I became a chef, then an educator, I worked in corporate communications in the Financial Services industry. The company I worked for in Chicago has a sister office in New York, two blocks from the World Trade Center. I remember that morning, much like it is today…sunny, beautiful, a hint of Fall in the air but still feeling like summer. I got in the elevator to head to the 16th floor of my office building that was two blocks from the Sears Tower in the Financial District of the Loop. Someone on the elevator told me a plane hit the World Trade Center in New York and they think it might be terrorists. No way, I thought. Some idiot in a puddle jumper plane didn’t know what they were doing and hit the tower. Odd place to be flying though, I thought. Then I got into the office and the silence hit me like a ton of bricks. Where is everyone, I thought. I went into our lunch room and everyone was huddled around a TV. Then I saw the tower burning. Then I saw the second plane hit. Someone told me that they were on a conference call with the New York office and they heard the plane hit the tower over the phone. That memory stays with me the most. Hearing the plane hit. Seeing it on TV looked like a science fiction movie and it wasn’t quite real yet. Hearing it actually happen though, that’s another thing.
I went back to my office and looked out at the Sears Tower. I wonder if they are on their way here, I thought. I wanted to get the hell out of downtown as fast as possible. After the second tower fell and we heard about the Pentagon and Pennsylvania, the building announced it was closing and that people should get out of downtown just in case. We’re at war, I thought. I’ve never felt so scared or so alone in my whole life. My family was in Indiana. I lived with my best friend, whose birthday was that day by the way, and I just wanted to find her and get to our apartment as soon as possible. My phone rang and it was my oldest sister. Are you alright? Get out of the city, she said, panicked. I am. I am. I walked out to get on the “el” to go to my Lakeview neighborhood apartment and as I walked out of the building, everyone else was evacuating downtown too. The silence was eerie, and everyone was looking up to the sky. Everyone was silent on the “el” ride too, looking out the window to the sky. Looking for planes.
That day changed our world. The financial services industry lost a lot of people that day too, along with all of the other businesses, fire houses and police stations. The images on the news after that haunted me, and still haunt me. I can’t think about that morning without getting tears in my eyes and goosebumps on my arms and a pit in my stomach. I can remember every detail like it was yesterday. The only other experience in my life that has stayed with me as much and I can remember in such minute detail is the day I lost my dad almost ten years before September 11, 2001.
So today, on the anniversary, I wished my best friend (and her 2 year old who was born on this same day) Happy Birthday. I said a prayer. I thanked God for my life and the life of everyone I love. And I continue to pursue my goal of fitness because even though life is so short and you never know when your day will come, I want to be my best self when it does.
On that note, I had to ease up on running over the weekend because I strained my hamstring so I’ll be interested to see if I meet my weight loss goal when I weigh in tomorrow. My hamstring feels better today and I am going to go out for a long walk instead of running, and will start up again tomorrow when it is fully healed. The last thing I want to do is injure myself and derail the good role I am on. I’ll keep you posted.
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