9/11 Tribute

Today, my birthday but this post is not about celebrating me or my birthday. I live in New York City and nine years ago on this day, America was attacked. I just wanted to take this moment to remember everyone who lost their life on 9/11.

I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I worked the night shift at Maimonides, left the hospital at around 7:30 AM and got to my apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn after 8 AM. I did my usual routine at home: took a shower, ate breakfast, and turned the radio on to listen to the news. My roommate and I were moving out of our apartment and she took our only television set back to New Mexico. So, I did not have a television set. I did hear on the radio that a plane was on the World Trade Center and I thought, “a plane is landing on the World Trade Center, how odd? Planes can’t land there.” And then I drifted off to sleep. Not knowing what had happened in New York, Pennsylvania, or Washington DC.

I woke up at 1 PM, still unaware something had happened in my city. I turned on my phone to listen to my messages since it was my birthday and had none. I thought it was odd that my family had not called me yet on my birthday. I looked out the window and I saw a lot of people walking and talking very loudly on their cell phone and heard “I can’t believe what happened”. And I saw a lot of debris in the air. I knew something was wrong but did not know what. I turned on the radio again but just got bits and pieces of information. It was something about the World Trade Center.

I got dressed and headed for the nearest pay phone to talk to someone, anyone. I called my sister first and she told me the bad news. Both of the twin towers had crumbled to the ground. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. She also told me my cell phone wasn’t working since she tried to call me earlier and couldn’t get a hold of me. Apparently, my entire family tried to call me to see if I was okay and got a busy signal.

I headed to the nearest bar to watch the news and stood in complete shock. Everyone in the bar was silent. I couldn’t believe what I saw – people jumping out of the floors of the World Trade Center. People covered in soot. The entire twin towers gone. A plane crashing in the middle of a field in Pennsylvania. The pentagon. So many people dead. People looking for their loved one in hospitals and carrying a missing person sign. I just couldn’t believe what I saw.

9/11/2001 was the longest day in my entire life. I have never felt so alone in my life as I did on that day. I moved to NY in April of that year and really knew one or two people, but they were not in New York at the time. There was no one I could have spoken to that day to really vent my feelings. Since it was my birthday, I treated myself to a Thai dinner but took it home so I can go over the day’s events in my head. This day I will never forget.