Where were you on September 11th?

Pam is my best friend. Our dad’s were good friends in high school. And they both ended up raising families in the same town. They each had three kids and all the kids were the same ages going down the line. Pam's and my older siblings were friendly, but Pam and I formed a friendship that I know will last a lifetime. Pam and I email all day long while at work. (I swear I am productive and actually do work while at work, I swear it!!) I didn’t post on 9/11 like I wanted to, but we emailed about it. The following is our correspondence from that morning. I apologize for the lower-case and slang – these weren’t supposed to be for blogging purposes.

C: how's nyc on 9/11? [pam lives and works downtown in NYC]

P: we [her coworkers] were actually just talking about that. i TOTALLY didn’t even realize it was 9/11 until ten minutes ago. there is nothing visibly happening here. isnt that a little weird?

C: it is weird. i was online yesterday trying to find any sort of article about the anniversary and i there was no coverage on boston.com, cnn.com, nytimes.com .... i finally found a ton of stuff on msnbc.com -- but it was just strange.

on matty in the morning (kiss 108) they like talked about it for a few minutes and then just moved on .... so i listened to the country music channel on the way in -- they had a moment of silence at 8:46 (when the first plane hit) .... and had some patriotic songs on and they were at least talking about it.

do you remember where you were when you found out?


P: of course, i went for a run and came back to my dorm to take a shower and saw this girl on my floor like IN HYSTERICS, bawling and like screaming (turns out she was from nyc). so i took a shower and came back into my room, turned on the tv and literally watched the second plane hit. i remember feeling like i was in independence day. [the movie] like i just stood there thinking "so this is how the world is going to end". to say i was f'ing freaked out would be a large understatement.

C: my roommate walked to the shower, but came back like 30 seconds later, saying that one of the girls in the hall was sobbing/screaming crying (her parents were on a flight to CA, but not one of the ones that went down) ... so we turned on the TV, watched the tv.... then i went and took a shower -- like it was still not a terrorist attack then ... got back to the room, got ready for the day, then i went and met up with leigh, by the time we got to the dining hall -- they had fallen. i went to class anyway --- i dont know why i just kept functioning like this wasn't the end of the world -- we got to class, i talked to ashley for the first time that day [ashley became my roommate for the next three years of college] - i told her what had happened - she freaked -- then my professor came in and told the rest of the class - and one boy like stood up all confused and was like "can i borrow someone's cell phone, my fathers works at the WTC" - i gave him my phone ... he couldn't get in touch with him -- class was dismissed. i went and sat on o'neil plaza calling my family ....... my dad was supposed to fly home from newark that morning – no one could get in touch with him until stevie finally did via cell phone. my dad got one of the last rental cars and drove home.


P: crazy shit man. especially to happen the first week that you are living away from home ever. veryunsettling.


C: yeah i was talking to my little cousin and her friends at the bc football game on saturday (they are freshman) and i was asking them about their freshman first week activities ... and i was like "did you go to a red sox game??" and they were like "naaww man wish we could but they couldn't get us tickets" i was like "oh that suuucks ... we had one, we were supped to go on september 12th ... but then september 11th happened so we ended up going like two weeks later" and they kind of looked at me and i was like "yeah i was a freshmen when the real 9/11 happened. it was pretty crazy" and they were like "wow i couldn’t imagine something like that happening right now. we barely know anyone" ... so crazy.

P: yeah, im really thankful that i did that volunteer program a couple of weeks early so that i actually had some good friends by the time it happened. a lot of my friends were from DC which was sorta scary. one of my good friend's mom was working the building across the street and was severely injured by flying debris. So scary.


So that was part of my September 11th story. A lot more happened that day. Some of which I remember vividly, some of which the details are foggy (I have the worst memory ever) but what I wont ever forget is how my life was changed from that day forward. BC held a prayer vigil at noon that day - when so many questions were still unanswered - and fighter jets flew over our heads … I just closed my eyes and prayed that the worst was over – and yet, 6 years later, we are fighting a war and people are dying every day. I just don’t get it.