Devastating......

And sad. And hurt. And angry. And confused.

These are just some of the emotions I felt after 9/11 happened. It is seared into my memory. Forever. I am sick to my stomach just sitting here thinking about it. I have tears in my eyes. But I do not have hate in my heart. Hate is a useless emotion, and it does not accomplish anything good. I refuse to have hate in my heart after the events of 9/11. That is what our enemy wants after all.

I will never forget where I was on the morning of 9/11. I had just started my career and was in training in a conference room outside of NYC. I was so excited to have a job right out of college and to be in NYC starting my career! I was with a group of people who were in my training class and we were listening to the trainer when a woman came into the room and whispered in the trainers ear. After several minutes, the trainer announced that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. That was all she said. No one knew what was going on that early September morning. So we took a break from our training and left the conference room. Out in the hallway of the building we were in TVs were set up everywhere so that we could see the news. We all stood there completely shocked. I could not believe what was going on
before my eyes. I started to call my family to make sure they were ok. I had a family member that worked at the Pentagon and one that worked right in the heart of New York City. Everyone was ok. Thank God! I called friends to make sure they were ok. They were. Again, thank you God!

I returned to staring at the TV. Trying to make sense of what was happening. Everyone around me was making phone calls and crying. I still could not process what was happening in my mind. Was the world at war? What was going on? All I could see were scared people running for their lives. I felt like the whole world was going crazy.

Then the trainer of our class decided that our training should resume! We all filed back into the conference room. What could we do after all? The building was on lockdown. No one could get in or out. I have never been so scared for my country and for my fellow Americans. I can't remember ever having cried so much as I did that week. It was horrible to see the twin towers burning from the building I was in. I could see the smoke rising all week long.

I can still see the people on the news running from the buildings and crying and searching for loved ones. I am still hoping to wake up and realize this was all one crazy nightmare.

But, it isn't.

This is the world we live in now.

The morning of September 11, 2001 forever changed America.