Remembering 9/11/01

Earlier this week, I started remembering my personal experience on September 11th, 2001. It seems like so long ago, yet it also seems like no time has passed at all. My memories of that day are starting to fade a little bit, so I thought today would be a good opportunity to write down what I remember.

Tuesday, September 11th in Salt Lake was a beautiful day. The kind of fall day you wait for all summer. I woke up early to head out for my morning run. The air was brisk and it was still dark. I ran 4 miles with Jackson - one of our regular routes from that neighborhood. As I came in and headed for the shower, I turned on the TV. The Today Show was on and they were showing video of a smoking World Trade Center. At the time, they knew it was a plane that hit it, but suspected a small plane. I thought it was odd and walked into the bedroom to wake Josh up and turn on the TV. We watched for a few minutes. While I was getting ready, another plane hit the WTC and it became apparent that our country was being attacked. I can't describe adequately how disconcerting this was. At this point, I called my parents and woke them up. I told them to turn on their TV. I still remember the sound of my dad's voice when he realized what was happening.

I decided to head to work. Josh headed up to the Lifthouse (they were painting it that day) and stayed there for a few hours. I got in my car and turned on my favorite radio program, Radio from Hell. On that day, they stopped playing music in order to help listeners cope with what was happening. To this day it remains a talk radio program. They were taking calls and trying to piece together information for listeners. On my forty-five minute drive down to Provo, they announced to us that a plane had hit the Pentagon, and that both the north and south towers had collapsed. It was beginning to set in that we were experiencing history.

I walked into work to find everyone stunned and shaken. We sat at our desks and wondered what to do until someone brought a TV into the conference room. We sat around the table and watched the rest of the day unfold. A colleague was on a press tour in New York that day and we were relieved to hear that she was safe. The news was reporting that different terrorist groups had taken responsibility for the attacks, but it was still unclear who was responsible. There were rumors and suspicions that the west coast would be targeted next, but at this point all flights had been grounded. Because we had an office in San Francisco - a potential target - our management thought we should all head home to spend the rest of the day with our families.

Josh and I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening glued to the television. It was all surreal - like a bad dream. Over and over we watched the footage of people jumping from the towers, the video of those planes making impact over and over again, and the people running desperately through the streets of New York. I talked to my parents again several times during the day. I remember my dad asking me if I understood the significance of what had happened.

In October of 2001, I went to New York for a press tour. I did not get close to the WTC site, but we were close enough to see that it was still a pile of burning rubble, but life was moving forward in New York. In the coming months, Josh started pushing the idea of joining the Marine Corps, while at the same time, our country went to war in Afghanistan. He had long had the dream of being a jet pilot and was tired of watching life pass by while working at the Lifthouse.

In February of 2002, he signed up for Officer Candidate School. On October 6th, 2002 (his 26th birthday), he left for OCS. I was in denial at the huge changes that were coming in our lives and really didn't want to leave Salt Lake. Right before he left for Quantico, VA, I once again went to New York for a press tour. I was incredibly sad to be there. We had just lost my grandma Cherie and my memories of New York were of the trip we had taken there with her a few years earlier. Now she was gone and the city had become emblematic of the horrible events of 9/1/01.

Our story of that day is unremarkable in the grand scheme of things. But it resulted in a remarkable turn of events in our lives. I have wondered what the past ten years would have been if we hadn't lived through 9/11. It's hard to say, but I doubt it would have involved a couple of deployments overseas for Josh and moves to and from six different states. As horrible as it was, I hope to never forget September 11th.