It’s hard to believe, but September 11, 2001, was 25 years ago. I still remember everything that happened like it just happened a few minutes ago. For those who weren’t alive or were too young to remember this day, it was truly one of the worst days ever.
I was 21 years old. I didn’t start my management career until the next month, October 2001. At that time, I was still working for a temp agency. I had just finished an assignment the previous week and was waiting for my next assignment. September 11 was on a Tuesday.
The day before, September 10, I had spent most of the day looking for jobs. In those days, you looked in the “Help Wanted” section of the newspaper and sent out physical copies of your resume. I found several jobs to apply to, so I had a stack of resumes ready to go out on Tuesday morning. I stayed up to watch Monday Night Football. It was the New York Giants against the Denver Broncos. I’m not a fan of either team (Go Ravens!), but I love to watch sports. The game ended late. I stayed up a little later to read, then I finally went to bed. I don’t remember what time it was, but it was late. In those days, I used to listen to 98 Rock a lot, so I had my old Sony radio on the nightstand, tuned to 98 Rock. I drifted off to sleep.
The morning show on 98 Rock then was Kirk, Mark, & Lopez. I was half asleep when I thought I was having the worst nightmare ever. I heard Lopez say that they were going to New York for breaking news. The New York affiliate reporter started talking, saying that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I couldn’t seem to wake up; I didn’t want to have a nightmare about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. The reporter was talking to some people who had seen the plane crash. As they were recalling the crash, someone screamed in the background, “there’s another plane!” The reporter told everyone to move away; another plane hit the other tower. This is when I woke up.
I quickly realized this wasn’t a horrible nightmare; it was actually happening! I ran into the living room and turned on the TV. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Thick black smoke was pouring out of both towers of the World Trade Center. I started thinking back to my last trip to NYC. When we were in the WTC, someone asked what would happen if a plane hit one of the towers. The person responded that airspace was restricted around Lower Manhattan, so planes weren’t allowed in the area, but if a plane hit, it was most likely an accident. However, if both towers were hit, it was an act of terrorism.
Even before they said it on the news, I realized this was no accident, and it was an act of terrorism. I was extremely sick to my stomach, but I couldn’t look away. It seemed that on every station, they were repeatedly showing the second plane crash into the South Tower. I was becoming overwhelmed by the news coverage, but I still couldn’t look away, no matter how hard I tried.
And the day only got worse from there. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon. After seeing the Pentagon coverage, I called my mom, who worked for the Department of Defense. I told her that the US was being attacked and that she and her coworkers needed to leave work immediately. They didn’t work at the Pentagon, but just in case these terrorists were going to crash planes into all government buildings, I wanted to make sure they all got out safely. My mom didn’t even know what was going on. A bunch of her coworkers were in the break room, gathered around the small TV. She heard someone say there was a plane crash at the World Trade Center, so she tried to pull up different news sites to see what happened, but none loaded. Not long after I called her, her workplace had dismissed everyone.
The bad day kept getting worse. For the first time ever, the airspace in the United States was completely closed. Another plane crashed in the fields of southern Pennsylvania. Both towers of the WTC collapsed. The Pentagon suffered a partial collapse. Thousands of lives were lost.
Life as we knew it had completely changed in one day.