On September 11, I was unemployed at my girlfriend's place, searching for a job online when I heard the planes hit the towers. I was close enough to the World Trade Center that the explosions made me jump. I was about a mile away. It sounded like the building had been hit by lightning only I knew it was a perfectly clear day. The TV signal went out and within minutes, I was getting emails about an attack. I stepped outside and saw a gaping hole in the north tower and what looked like debris falling from the sides. Only later, did I come to terms with the fact I was watching people jump.
I can't begin to explain how upsetting the whole experience was. For hours, we sat there wondering if another plane was going to crash into the city. For weeks, I was trapped within military baracades without access to newspapers. For a month, I wondered if I knew anyone who was working at the towers that day that didn't get out. The buildings burned for months. The fires and the smell weren't extinguished until December.
It took me a while to move past that day but I did. I grew up in Greenwich Village, New York City and like most kids downtown, the World Trade Center was like the North Star. Every time I got lost in the confusing streets outside the grid, all I had to do was find the towers and I knew where I was. In a little over a year from now, we're getting our North Star back. At 1,776 feet, New York will again have the tallest building in North America and the largest office building in the world. I'm really looking forward to the day when construction creeps past neighboring buildings and scrapes the sky. I'm looking forward to it because for me, it's important to move on.
In my opinion, I think it's time to celebrate what we have and what's close to us. If I were to customize my cue, it would be a tribute to my family and/or my friends but that's just me. However, I'm very proud to be a New Yorker and I'm especially proud to be an American and anyone who chooses to convey their respects to the city I call home on a day that's incredibly important to me, I would be deeply moved. Afterall, it wasn't just New York or DC or Pennsylvania that was affected. That was obvious by all the support that arrived here from hundreds of miles away the following day. It's nice after 10 years to see that continued support.
