I was in college. Class was about to start, when a girl from another class came into our room… and told us that the school was being evacuated, and that we all needed to leave ASAP. Please keep in mind, that my college was about a mile from an airport.

We all interrupted her, asking why. All she said was, “a plane crashed into the World Trade Center, and we all have to leave” …I’ll never forget the anxiety in her voice.

To keep this as short as possible. We left school. Battled immense confusing traffic. Listened to the radio (Howard Stern, on 94WYSP at the time). We got home just in time to run into my living room and turn on the TV. We watched the towers collapse, and spent the rest of the day glued to the television in complete disbelief.

I ended up going to work that night. I was a restaurant host. We had maybe five customers all night. Everyone in my small town in Pennsylvania was visibly shaken. It would end up being a day that would never leave our minds.

To this day, I have extreme PTSD from what transpired on that horrible day. I’m nervous to have to relive it when my children learn about it in school.

That’s my story. I miss the life I led before everything turned upside down.