Ten years ago I had just recently graduated from college and was working as a social worker in a low income preschool, my first "real job" so to speak. I wasn't married and I was sharing an apartment with my older sister, Erika, in Indianapolis.
We felt pretty safe back then, we were young girls, living in an up and coming city. Lots to see and do, we enjoyed the nightlife, and all the craziness that came with it. I also travelled a lot at that time. My friends and I thought nothing of getting in the car and driving to Chicago, New York, Tennessee, and even California. The world was our playground.
Then, a day came that changed everything for all of us. September 11, 2001, I had only worked a few hours that morning and entered my apartment to my phone ringing. I said, "Hello" and my heard my friend, Travis' voice on the other end of the line saying, "What are you doing? TURN ON YOUR TV!!!" I was a little thrown off, but just flipped it on anyway. Almost immediately after turning on the tv, the towers began to crumble.
I had just recently been to New York and the image of my friend and I at the statue of Liberty with the towers in the background flashed in my head. I just couldn't believe it, questions came, Travis, of course, had no answers, we just sat on the phone saying, "How? What? Why?" over and over again.
My sister came home and we sat up all night, watching the news, people crying, facts being found out, reports of survivors, praying for hope...it just never seemed to end. We were driving under a bridge in Indy when we saw a man waving a huge flag back and forth, back and forth...we will never know who he was, but we felt one with him.
We knew things began to change in those days. And, as those days turned into weeks and then months and now, 9 years, things most certainly have changed. We are always alert, no longer a sense of complete comfort, more reserved with ourselves and amongst strangers, wishing for the luxury of a sense of security. Never fully finding it.
Yes, everything changed that day.
1 comment:
Well said, Amy.
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