September 11th…We Will Never Forget

I can still tell you exactly what I was doing, wearing  and what time it was when I got a bizarre phone call from my mom telling me that “airplanes are crashing everywhere, are you watching the news??!?!”  I walked to the TV and turned on the news and was in shock at what I saw.  At that very moment I knew life had changed.  

I was working during the day as an event planner at a popular silicon valley restaurant where companies like Cisco and Apple would hold large company parties and at night I went to school.  I got dressed and went to work and everyone there was sitting in the bar area watching the TV.  No one could even say anything.  Slowly the phone started ringing with people calling in the cancel their party for that day.  

The planes that were highjacked were headed for LA and San Francisco.  That day and the days to follow I had more than I ever thought possible of my contacts for parties call and need to cancel their events because one of their employees was on one of the planes.  A girl my age, who went to my college and was in one of my classes was on one of the planes. She was on her way back from a vacation in NYC with her boyfriend and his family, but since she booked her ticket late she was on a different flight then them.  9/11/2001 is a day that made the world a very small world.  

The word terrorist and terrorism is in the vocabulary of kids now.  I can’t say that I remember knowing that word as a young child.  I know my 4 year old knows the word because at Disneyland she called the Tower of Terror the “Tower of Terrorist”.  This is because while she has probably never heard the word “terror” before, she apparently has heard the word “terrorist” somewhere.  

Each one of us I’m sure has a story however big or small.  Each one of our lives was changed.  I encourage everyone to remember and never forget. Honor the lives lost and the heroes fallen. Celebrate life and the freedoms we have.