I used to work in Battery Park and was laid off a few months before 9-11. I was working as a temp locally in NJ at ADT Security. I had a dream the night before which frightened me cause I didn’t understand it to well. It was full of sand and buildings were falling into the sand..that morning I checked out the window just to make sure it was a dream.

I went to work that sunny morning and told my Pakistani coworker about the dream..we shrugged it off and went back to work. About an hour later there was a major alert that alarms were going off in the WTC Tower but we weren’t clear about the details. Then we received a phone call. My one coworker looked at me and said the tower was on fire. I didn’t believe him at first.. Many of my other coworkers rushed into the meeting room to see the tv..then we heard about the Pentagon..then PA..

I was in a fog..I remember going into the bathroom for a few minutes to get my mind together. Knowing I had loved ones in NY..and there was no way to know if they were safe. I stared at the mirror and the wall in disbelief. It was as if time slowed to a slow crawl. I left the building..my mother called me since she worked for a wireless company and said to get home asap because the phone lines were clogged and all of the major roads were blocked off. I was lucky to be working so close to home..I came home and my grandmother was crying standing at the television because she said it reminded her of Pearl Harbor among other things..

The phone lines were down..the air was silent..no planes were flying above my house..you could smell the smoke in Jersey..

My boyfriend had to go into work that same day in the Financial District. It really hit home..we both visited the site a week later..it was a heart numbing..the air..the dust..the photos of the missing..the people waiting to get into churches..the large american flag waving in the war zone..the scum who were selling photos on the street corner of the disaster..the people taking pictures..

I didn’t need a picture to remind me. I used to work down there..I will never forget 9-11 and all the the people I know who lost family members. I quit ADT a few days later and began to think about life in a new way.