How will I ever forget!

Around 8:50 am I was awaken by my father who was on his way to work, on his way out he told me that a small plane had hit the WTC. No thinking much about it, he left while I made my way out of bed. By the time I tuned in to CNN, the second plane had already hit WTC 2. By now, the entire world started to think that something was wrong. After that, the world would never be the same…

That day I had no classes and I also had a day off from work as I had to make my way downtown to pick up my books for the upcoming semester at Concordia University, in Montreal. I sat in front of my TV witnessing these tradgic events unfolding under my eyes. It was so unreal…WTC 1, then WTC 2, then the Pentagon. At that point I was thinking “what next”? I honestly though that under attacks would take place. Keeping in mind that at that point, one plane was still unaccounted for.

All through the morning I was on the phone, relaying the information to friends and family, that were at the office without a TV or radio. When WTC 2 collapsed, it just seemed so unreal. The images of people running from the huge cloud of debris will always stay in my mind. For a while, I kept thinking about the movie Armagedon…althought this was real, very real.

Around noon, me and my girlfriend made our way downtown to purchase our books for University. As we were waiting for the train, we started to witness the really was closer to us now. The train station is right next to Dorval airport (Montreal’s Airport). As we were waiting, we could see on plane after another landing…air traffic like never before, sirens were going off everywhere, security all over the place, police blocking the entrance of cars to the terminal…a real movie scene.

In downtown Montreal, everybody was paralyzed at street corners, people where gathered around TV’s watching CNN, huge crowds were gathering at cafes and restaurants…but the funny thing was that the entire city was dead quiet. You could almost hear a pin drop between the police sirens…it was so unreal. As the day progressed, word came out on TV that Montreal was supposed to have also been a target, right away, all major buildings were evacuated. Everybody fled the downtown area, it was so quiet that most major shopping malls closed their doors in early afternoon. Again, there was security all over the place at almost every corner a cop could be spotted, in every metro, bus, and train station…panic was settling in.

I always remembered my parents saying: ” I will never forget where I was, and what I was doing when Kennedy got shot”. I never thought that one day I would be telling my kids: ” I will never forget where I was, and what I was doing on 9/11″. Honestly, I wish I wouldn`t have to say it. What I witnessed on 9/11 will stay with me forever, the horror, the panic, the disbelief…all of it. I wish , and sincerely hope that an event like this never happens again.

As I am writing this today, 8 months after the events, I am still shocked. I will never forget…

Peace
God Bless America

From your Canadian neighbour,
Nick