Where were you 18 years ago today?

[RiverRat]

I live in a border city between Canada and the US. My parents has been in the US that morning and had just got home before the border closed. The local highway that feeds into the border crossing was backed up for miles and miles because no one was allowed to enter the US - most of which in the line would have been US citizens. Locals along the highway took food and drinks to the (mostly) truckers that were stranded. I watched tv coverage. It was crazy. I was driving to the US daily for school at that point, but I was between semesters, so I had tons of phone calls.


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[hillview]

I was home alone in Boston and my parents were in London and my sister was in California which all felt very far away (I was not married). I was in bed (unemployed) and watching the Today Show live. I saw it unfold and was very scared. And in shock.

[marinkitty]

I had gone in to work extra early to prep for a teleconference and a partner whose office was just down the hall from me who was an early bird stuck his head in and told me a plane had hit one of the WTCs. I followed him to the staff lunchroom where we watched on CNN as the second plane hit. I immediately tried calling my DH who was bound for La Guardia that morning (couldn't reach him of course, but found out later his plane hadn't taken off yet and ended up never taking off - they just sat on the runway an hour before going back to the gate once the FAA grounded everyone) and one of my BFs from college who worked in World Financial (couldn't get through to her but she got through to her sister who called one of our friends and word got around - she was in the basement of the WTC getting off the subway when the first plane hit and ended up running north before the towers fell) before heading back into the lunchroom and watching the towers fall. The absolute horror of it all stays with me today. And even so we couldn't have known how much it would change everything.

I flew to NYC a week and a half later on an almost empty plane (out of an almost empty O'Hare) for a bachelorette party (another BF from college was getting married that November in NYC) - which she debated canceling and everyone kind of decided that life must go on and we all still went - we flew right up the Hudson in the evening and could see the workers at ground zero and all the smoke still rising. A flight pattern that would never ever happen now - you'd never get that close today. We stayed in a hotel in Union Square that was filled with firefighters from all over the country who had come to help. The whole city smelled like smoke and I remember walking past the armory and seeing all the posters of missing loved ones. It was wrenching. It was such a strange weekend and the atmosphere in the city was both sad and one of unity and perseverance in a way that I haven't ever felt since.

That fall I was working on a big cross-border M&A deal that had me traveling constantly to NY and London. The planes were just totally empty for months. No one went anywhere that wasn't totally necessary for work. Everyone was so nervous at the airports. I saved the email the partner I was working with sent that morning to the London law firm we were set to spend the day on the phone with - there were no lines out and our building had closed and downtown Chicago had cleared out, but she was determined we'd somehow still have our call until finally it became clear it just wasn't going to happen - just this surreal email about how our country was under terrorist attack and we'd have to resume negotiations at a later date.

[trales]

It was my first day teaching at a boarding school in CT, most of the kids were from NYC. That night the commuter rail was full of cars and many kids still had not heard from parents. It was awful, we spent the day in the chapel, just hoping to hear word.

[gatorsmom]

I was pregnant with the baby I would eventually miscarry, watching this on tv at home and as I watched the planes go into the towers with one going into the Pentagon I remember thinking, “the next one will go into the White House.”

[bcafe]

I was getting ready for my FILs funeral. We were at my parent’s home and the usual morning news was on. My BIL was active military and needless to say, the emotions were running high for obvious reasons.

[ang79]

I was a senior in college just starting in my first student teaching placement in a 4th grade class. I was just doing an opening for a lesson and the classroom teacher came in and told me to keep teaching for her (she was supposed to do the rest of the lesson), that another teacher had the news on and something had hit the WTC. For the rest of the morning we took turns hopping into whoever's class was at special, so that we could see the news. By afternoon it was decided that we had to break the news to the kids. Several kids started crying (either they had a family member who lived in NYC, a parent who worked in Washington sometimes, parents who were supposed to be flying home from a trip, etc.) Lots of questions, lots of fear. After school dismissed I walked back to campus where everyone was glued to the TVs in the common areas or gathered in the chapel praying. My campus was in Western PA and I knew of another family from my small hometown that was to come and visit the campus that weekend with their son who was a high school senior, but they canceled their trip because of the plane that went down in Somerset, PA. There was a lot of fear about traveling, especially flying. For winter break that year I made plans to fly to CA to visit friends for part of the break and my parents almost didn't let me go. While we were in CA, we did a road trip to Tijuana, Mexico, and there were vendors everywhere selling "antrax cures" because it was right after the anthrax mail scares in the US. I remember thinking how different the world was now, that this was our new reality, and how would we adapt to it?

Today I was sub. teaching in a 5th grade classroom. The principal read a statement about what happened on 9/11 and then led the school in a moment of silence to remember the victims. This is not the first time I've been back in a classroom on that day since it happened, but every time I am, it brings back all those memories of the disbelief, shock, fear, and sadness from that day. And then seeing the kids around me and wanting to protect them from the ugliness of the world, just like I did in that student teaching classroom.

[PZMommy]

I was in college. My roommate and I were getting up and getting ready for school. Her mom called us and told us to turn on the TV. The first plane had just hit the tower. We were glued to the TV. The college cancelled classes. We were in the LA area, and we were worried LA maybe next.

My sister’s company was headquartered in the north tower, but thankfully her office wasn’t in that building. She was actually on a conference call with people at the North tower when the plane hit. Her company was on the floors that were hit by the plane. She said they were talking and then the line went dead. She just assumed that the connection dropped. It wasn’t until a few minutes later they realized what had happened. Her company lost hundreds of employees that day.

[carolinacool]

My sister’s company was headquartered in the north tower, but thankfully her office wasn’t in that building. She was actually on a conference call with people at the North tower when the plane hit. Her company was on the floors that were hit by the plane. She said they were talking and then the line went dead. She just assumed that the connection dropped. It wasn’t until a few minutes later they realized what had happened. Her company lost hundreds of employees that day.

On the phone? Oh my goodness.

[petesgirl]

I was also in college. My roommate listened to the news every morning on the radio, so we were listening together when they announced the first plane crash, neither of us could have guessed it would have been anything but a freak accident. I left shortly after that and walked through the student center to my first class. There was a big screen TV in the student center and it was completely surrounded by students watching the news. I stopped to watch just as the 2nd plane hit and the towers collapsed. The rst of the day is a blur. I do remember one of my teachers cancelling classes for the next 2 weeks because he went back to NYC to help clean up.
My older brother and sister were both serving religious missions at the time and were scheduled to fly home a week after 9/11. My mom called the mission leaders beggin them to let my siblings stay a few months longer because she didn't want them anywhere near an airplane at the time.