After reading Meteor Blades poignant
diary about how much our world has changed since September 11, 2001, I have been remembering a lot of what I was feeling on that day.
dKos has been here a long time, and I'm sure it's been covered before, but there are many new faces here and I am one of them. I am curious about where all of you were on that day, what your initial reactions were, and especially, how your life and your little corner of the world have changed since then.
more below
My day started out exactly like any other day. I saw my kids, then ages 11, 13 and 16 off to school and sat down at my computer to check email. I heard a report on the Today Show that a plane had hit the first tower and I immediately began to watch as the first reports indicated that it was probably a small plane. Then I watched the second plane slice through the second tower and I knew immediately that my world would never be the same. I remember watching the TV personalities who a moment before were laughing and engaging in goofy banter grow increasingly serious and very noticeably frightened.
Reports started coming in fast; another hijacking, rumors of terrorism, the plane striking the pentagon, and the first mention of Al Qaeda. I was glued to the television, yet pacing around the room, unsure of what to do. The only thing I knew was that I wanted my children. I wanted to see them.
I ran the two blocks to the middle school where my two youngest sons attended and when I got to the main office, I was one of only 5 or 6 mothers there. By the time the secretary located my children and summoned them to the office, it was overflowing with parents; mostly mothers of children I had known for years. We were all nearly silent, watching the tv mounted in the corner of the office. Looking around, there was no doubt that we all just wanted to touch our children, to shelter them, to bring them home.
I have thought about my actions that day and wondered if I was being melodramatic. What good would it do to take my kids out of school? Did I really think their school was going to be hit next?
The thing is, we didn't know. None of us knew how that day would end. And all of us realized, collectively, that the big house, the nice car, the sizeable retirement account, the designer handbag...none of it mattered. What mattered, what was irreplaceable was my family.
I wrote a letter to the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they published on Christmas Day, just 2 1/2 months later. It detailed all of the things I was grateful for even though it had been an extremely difficult year for me.
I think that year, and September 11th in particular, changed everything for me. While I can't stop myself from worrying about what is happening in the world and trying to change it, ultimately I have turned inward, into my own home and, even futher, into my own heart, and I have discovered a strength and a tenacity there that I never imagined I possessed. And I love my children more ferociously than ever, and treasure each moment I have with them.
Where were you? How have you changed?