People of my parent's generation always remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard President John F. Kennedy was shot.  Pearl Harbor probably represents a similar memorable moment for my parents' parents' generation.  It's amazing how horrible events anchor memories.  My generation's event is 9/11.

My friend, Courtney, inspired me to write about my reflections on this day.  I often feel I forget about too many personal historic events.  9/11 will, unfortunately, never leave me.

On 9/11, shortly after the first Trade Center building was hit, I was driving toward the office of the company I worked for at the time.  As I do every morning, I listened to the morning news, when the normal news was interrupted by a feed from New York.  The news reporter broke in to state that a plane had hit the World Trade Center building and it was thought to be a small plane.  It was a clear day, so reporters could not speculate as to why this might have happened.  As he was reporting this news, the second plane hit.  He chillingly reported what he witnessed.  My first thought was, "those bastards," while I fought back tears (as I'm doing now).  I thought about the people who were surely in the buildings.  I had no idea at the time who might be responsible, but I was sure, in that split second, these events were no accident.  The reporter felt the same way and voiced his skepticism of an accident.

I managed to get to the office for a surreal day.  I was starved for news.  I went to my desk and tried to get a radio station, which was difficult to do.  All streaming was blocked by the corporate firewall and there was no reception for the AM or FM radio stations carrying the news.  Soon, a contrator working with us on the project arrived to inform us his father and brother worked in the WTC and their whereabouts were unknown.  The events of the day began to take on a more personal note.  This was, fortunately for me but not for many others, as personal as it got.

The towers came down shortly thereafter.  United 93 crashed in the middle of a field in Pennsylvania.  The consulting firm released all their employees for the day about an hour later.  The company president sent out an email informing us to stay at our posts for our clients.  The FAA, in an unprecedented, but warranted, move, grounded all plane traffic.  As the consulting firm, making up more than 80% of the staff on the project left, the surreal feeling became more pronounced.

When the day ended, I rushed home to get more news.  I saw the pictures.  My anger increased.  The surrealness of the situation rose.  These emotions stayed with me for days.

I sincerely hope this is the only event of this nature in my life time.  I wish that my kids' generation and those that follow do not encounter any, but the reality of life tells me they will.