I was living in brooklyn at the time, working in manhattan. i, along with many other manhattan professionals, routinely commuted using the express bus taking the brooklyn battery tunnel, and stopping right at the world trade center as a good portion of the passengers worked there.

on sept 11. 2001, i overslept & was late for work. i found myself waiting for the bus, stressing out about being late, and called work to let them know. our receptionist picked up and said.. “you may want to stay home. you haven’t heard? there’s been an accident.. a plane has hit the world trade center and it looks bad..”.. her sentence was cut short…”oh my god, oh my god..a second plane just hit the second tower..” me: “oh my god.. that’s no accident…”

my commute to manhattan didn’t happen that day.. instead i went back home and glued myself to the tv, watching with my mother.. waiting for the story to unfold, waiting for answers to so many questions..stunned.. hearing about the pentagon.. wondering about all the people working in all these buildings..

and then it happened.. the first tower crumbled before our eyes.. hearing the reporters reactions. as the tower collapsed.. i felt my legs give way beneath me… as if i had been punched in the stomach and had the breath taken from me…gone.

and i thought.. oh lord.. all those people… all those people.. all those people…

i couldn’t believe what i was seeing. i never thought the tower would collapse.. but it did. and i thought about these towers that defined manhattan’s skykine so definitively throughout my lifetime.. a skyline i always took for granted as so many native new yorkers always have…

..and all those people..

and then the second tower fell. gone. all those people, gone.. i thought.. gone. but why, i asked… why? why those people? some were like me.. young, just starting to define themselves professionally, open-minded, fun-loving, living for the weekend, dreaming of a future.. a future that for so many was now gone..