Ten Years Later

Living in Jersey City, New Jersey you grow up with this attitude that people are different and you accept it. No thoughts of bombings or gun warfare simply because your ideals or beliefs are different from the norm. I do not want to sound like I lived in a bubble but in a way I kind of did. My love for New York City was always there but around 2001 it really started to flourish. I started working at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum where my internship with the US Department of Labor was terminated. Then as we are all aware...September 11th happened. Here is my account of what was going on in my life as well as pictures I took from across the river.

7am: My mother wakes me up to let me know that she was on her way to work. My mom back in 2001 was a cook for Public School #28 in Jersey City, NJ. I told my mom and my brother the night before that I was off from work and that I would sleep until maybe 10am and get up, take care of the dogs (Hudson was three at the time, Sweetums was one year old) and that I would wait for my mom to come home before I went out to see a movie in New York.

9am: Receive a phone call from my mother telling me that a plane went into one of the World Trade Center towers. I remember asking her what she is putting into her cooking as she was clearly hallucinating at work. She then asked me to turn on the television and there it was -- one of the towers on fire. Then at 9:03 I see another plane go into the second tower. I screamed and dropped the phone and told my mom I would call her back. My dogs begin to bark and I could not control them.

10am: Receive a slew of phone calls and emails from friends and family asking if everyone is okay. Have not heard from my brother at this time. I continue to watch the news.

12pm: My mom comes home from work. My dogs finally calm down and are eating now. If you walk up the block where I live you get a clear view of the NYC skyline. This is what I saw:

I could not believe it. The towers GONE. A big plume of smoke was there in its wake.

2pm: My dad who works for the Hudson County Road Department took today off as he had a ticket to pay in Union City, NJ. He did not come home until 8pm. Again at this time still have not heard from my brother. He was on the road headed home though as he called from his office.

Pretty much from this point on until both my dad and brother arrived back at home I was fielding phone calls and emails and keeping my eye on the news. I did have work the next day but was given the option to leave early if I could not handle being in New York City. I did the best that I could but in the back of my brain all I wanted to do was be home with my family.

I can not believe it is ten years later. It doesn't feel like it. My principal announced over the loudspeaker on Friday that the students that are in the 8th grade now were in Pre-K when this happened. There are plenty of unanswered questions of why this happened but this is definitely a tragedy that hopefully people will not forget like other tragedies that have happened in US History.