I Remember

It started out like any normal day. I showed up to work a little earlier then normal and decided to turn on the radio since no one was around. As people showed up I turned it down but not off for some reason.

I was sitting at my workstation coding away. I was focused and was making nice progress but then I started to hear something strange on the radio. I started to listen and was having a hard time understanding what was being said so I went to the CNN news site to see if they had anything and, at least at that moment, they were not real helpful yet.

From what I could tell a plane had crashed but there just were no details and I was really wondering what was going on. I decided it was time to go see what was on the TV.

As I made my way to the TV I could see I was not alone, many others were doing the same thing. The real eery part is no one was talking, just watching. I joined them and what I saw was a large building with smoke coming from a section most of the way up the building. I was soon to learn this was one of the World Trade Center towers.

As I continued to watch I saw a replay of what had happened as a plane just flew right into the side of the tower but then it sunk in. This was not a replay, I had just witnessed the second plane hit the second tower.

The whole time this is happening I could not help but feel numb. None of this was real. It was much more like I was watching a movie then something live. I remember thinking they have to shut down all planes in the area to protect the building and the people and that is what they did. I remember speculation as to what was going on and I started to think they need to ground all the planes because who knows how wide spread this is. Amazingly that is exactly what happened. Then word came in about a plane hitting the Pentagon and I was sick in my stomach.

I continued to watch the news and it was the weirdest thing. I was most probably in shock the nearest I could tell. I was in shock and morning for at least a month before I forced myself to move on as best as I could. I have so many holes in my memory of what happened. Some things I will never forget, other things were just not important. Things like I think they allowed us to go home early but I can not remember. What I do remember is making plans to attend church that evening. I just needed to be around people. I also needed to get some sort of explanation, something that would make sense of everything. While I did not get that, I did feel better for going. I resisted giving blood because I could not see what they were going to do with so much blood. Instead I gave money that I hoped would be put to good use.

I went home and remember thinking how eery it was with no planes in the sky. I am near a approach path for the local airport and I was not hearing and seeing the planes that I am so accustom to. When I got home I put up my flag and flew it at half mast. I did this for sometime before returning it to full staff once again. All and all I flew the flag for 3 months straight before I had to take it down because it was badly tattered from the weather and the flag pole was heeling over from all the strong winds. That flag is still with me and I fly it every September 11 as I remember what happened that day. As I remember all that died, all the brave, heroic people that gave their lives for others. All the effort put forth to rescue people. All the patriotism shown by people. All the generosity of every one. How, for the most part people put aside their differences and came together for the common good.

I remember.