That morning I woke up somewhere around 5:30 am like any other “normal” morning.  I ate breakfast, hopped on the internet and read the news.  The commute to work was pretty easy as it only takes me about 15 minutes to get to work.  Once there I took some time in the break room to gather myself before clocking in for what I thought would be another run of the mill boring day at work.  Could I have been any more wrong?

I had been at work nearly two hours and was sitting outside taking a smoke break when I woman came walking past and rather matter-of-factly said, “a plane just hit the world trade center”.  I haven’t seen her in almost 9 years but for some reason can picture her as clear as day and can even recall most of what she was wearing.  The lack of emotion in her voice registered led me to believe a Cessna or maybe a small private jet like a Gulf Stream had flown off course and hit one of the buildings; I thought, unfortunate but it was no where near what it would turn out to be.

I honestly had no clue of the enormity of what was unfolding until I got back to my desk and punched up yahoo news on my computer.  When I saw the images of the first smoking tower, I realized it was not a Cessna that struck the North tower but an American Airlines passenger jet.  A great sense of sadness ran through my body.  While I still had no idea of just how devastating the events that occurred on 9/11/2001 would be I had an overwhelming feeling that this was no accident.  Right about then the South tower was hit by a United Airlines flight. For me, that was the precise moment the world changed.

As a rational adult trying to make sense of a situation that was anything but logical, all I felt was confusion.  Eventually that sense of confusion would give way to terror and then anger but initially confusion ruled the roost.  Within the hour two more birds would fall from the sky; one hitting the pentagon and another crashing somewhere outside of Pittsburgh (or so it was being reported at the time).  My Mother lives about 20 minutes from the airport in Pittsburgh so of course I find nearest phone (as I didn’t even carry a cell back then) to find out what was going on.

It took a while to get through since I have a big family and everyone was thinking along the same lines as me.  But, once I was able to talk to someone I found out it actually landed in a field in Shanksville which is about 80 miles Southeast of Pittsburgh.  I’m ashamed to say it but initially I thought nothing of those people on that plane.  I was just relieved that whatever was happening occurred far enough away from my mother (love you mom).

Work stopped, and if you knew my workplace you would realize how rarely that happens.  In fact, it has only happened 3 times since then; two blizzards where we got nearly 4 feet of snow and most recently for Hurricane Irene. For the next hour or so we were all glued to televisions or computer monitors.  Some people were trying to reach family members working in the World Trade Center and although no one was panicked the sense of doom was palpable.

I don’t remember anything about the commute home other than it took nearly an hour and a half.   Once here I made phone calls nearly nonstop which if you know me is a rarity.  Other than business related calls I made maybe 3 phone calls a week.  Like most of the world I would sit in front of the television for the next 12 hours trying to make sense of it all.   Four downed passenger jets, over three thousand dead and all of our lives forever changed.  I fell asleep on the couch the night and when I woke the next morning the world was different.  Although I hadn’t stepped outside of my home I still new our lives would never be the same.

I may be wrong but I don’t think we worked the following day but did return to “life as usual” that Thursday. No, maybe I should say I tried to return to life as usual.  We all tried to return to life as usual and today we still try, but can’t.  Chances are we never will be able to, the world changed that day.  Our naive belief that terrorist attacks only happen in other parts of the world was shattered.  On September 11 2001, 300 million Americans found out that no matter how much we try to portray ourselves as being separate from much of the world nothing can make you  completely safe from the world.