It is September 11, 2011. Another 10 years of my life has passed and I am turning 40 in 3 weeks. When I turned 30 I cried for about 3 days. My then boyfriend, now husband thought I was nuts because he was already 35. But you see. Alot happened for me in the month of September 2001. We had the horrific attack on the Twin Towers in NY and I lost my dearest uncle on September 15th, 4 days after I was still reeling from what I could only witness on TV and in the Newspapers.
Shock, sadness, grief, and extreme love for my fellow citizen as human beings. All are feelings that came rushing to me and stayed with me for days and weeks. I cried when I turned 30 because I felt that I had not accomplished in life what I had come here to do. My 20’s had passed and I had a lot of success in many different areas yet I felt unfulfilled in so many others.
During 2000-2001, I was working with my first Personal Development coach. He helped me clarify my purpose in life that I still live by to this day. My purpose is to live a life of Faithful Freedom, Joyful Kindness and Creative Service. I’ve written of this before MY WHY IS STRONG and it is the central part of why I do what I do and how I live my life.
I have good memories from 2001 that I carry with me. Yet, I will never forget where I was and what I was doing on that fateful day. I was sitting in my living room doing some work when my best friend called me and told me to turn on the TV. She said a small plane has hit one of the NY Twin Towers. I thought wow, that’s not good, let’s see. I remember seeing the smoke billowing out of the first building and the buildings were still standing. Greg was still sleeping and as I continued to watch for a few minutes I realized this was not good and I ran to wake him up. Something was wrong. I didn’t know what but something was wrong.
We sat riveted to the TV for what seemed like hours. I called my sister who lives in Queens to make sure my brother-in-law wasn’t working in the City tht day. Everyone was fine. Little did we know what was to come.
I remember one of the weirdest sounds was not hearing a single airplane flying overheard (we were in the flight path for Portland International Airport) and an eerie sense of silence in our community as we began to see the reports of the Towers falling. People were friendlier and more helpful. Flags were everywhere. People started caring about people.
I could write more and more on this subject and how I felt that day. The message I’d like to convey is one of hope and remembrance. While we mourn for those families who lost loved ones 10 years ago and whose lives were changed forever on that fateful day, I’d like to also us to never forget the feelings of coming together, of hope, of helping others, and of patriotism for our Country. America has her challenges and in the scheme of things we’re young as we haven’t even hit our 250th birthday. We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to be around as a nation for years to come.
Let us never forget how we came together and how we can continue to come together as a citizens of this Great County.
Alan Jackson wrote a great song in Tribute to 9/11. God Bless those who lost their lives, their families, the helpers, our Soldiers and most of all God Bless America.
Here’s a tribute I found on YouTube to Alan’s song.
Do you remember where you were of what you felt on that day? I would love to hear your sharing.
All the best.
Great video and song, but so hard to watch.
I am so proud of the American people and the people of the world who have stood up to terrorists, stood tall for freedom and shown the resiliency that makes us great.
Thanks for sharing your moving post, VaNessa!
VaNessa,
You post about your emotional journey through 2001 will no doubt help others connect to you. this transparent leadership is a gift you have and I wanted to say think you for sharing it with others. They deserve to follow a “say it as you see it” kind of person.
I totally related to what you said about people coming together…being more friendly to each other. I’ve seen this only a few other times in my life. But this is where HOPE is born and RELATIONSHIPS are nurtured to a greater level.
I also remember looking up in the sky and realizing that not a single plane was flying over US soil for those 4 days following 9/11. I heard that there’s usually 4000+ planes in the air at any one point in time. Amazing how big the ripple effect was on those attacks.
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
Hi Vanessa,
We all have that day fresh in our minds. I was on a call, at 8:30 am. Then my sister-in-law in Seattle called to see if we were OK. We were living about 40 minutes away from ground zero. She said to turn on the TV and the phones died.
It was the first hit and we thought it was an accident….I kept watching and seen the other plane hit. Immediately I called my daughters that were away at college in Buffalo NY. I told them to get in the car and head to a friends house in Canada. I felt we were at war.
They didn’t make it over the border, I put money in their accounts before the cash machines died out and told them to meet me half way in western NY.
The feeling was I had to save my kids. I went outside and everyone was walking around in a daze. Then I thought of all the people I knew in the area that were family and friends. My mom was close and so was my brother. Mom said it was raining dust and she was closing windows and taping them up. My brother was on the road heading to NYC but got stuck until the evening. We didn’t know where he was and that day was long. I lost a few of my clients, and some survivors that were in the building that I know were never the same.
Being close by I smelled the smell! I don’t have a word for it, but I hope to God I never smell that again.
Blessings.
Donna
Donna…a beautiful and powerful story. Thank you for sharing. Be blessed.
Inspirational article and video VaNessa. I remember all too well where I was – standing in an airport waiting to catch a plane (which never happened of course since life as we knew it came to a screeching halt for a time that day) and watching the event unfold live on television in the passenger lounge.
Thank-you for this. Yes I do remember where I was. I am a Home Health nurse, and I went into one of my patients homes and the TV was on. The first plane had just hit. Will never forget, I could not imagine at that time that it was intentional, how could that be? Who would do such a thing? Optimistic me, would not believe until several hours later.
During the 9/11 tragedy, the whole world especially america is mourning and a lot of people lose their lives during that day. I couldn’t believe that such things will happen in our country, after the tragedy, a lot of things happened, lots of changes in our country. I felt so bad for those people who lost their loved ones and I really hope that they totally moved on after 10 years.
I would agree Tony, I hope there has been healing for the survivors.