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It is one of those things you won't ever forget.
I was sitting in my cubicle doing something (no idea what) and a co-worker who is in my "lunch group" came to my desk and told me to turn on my radio, that a plane had crashed into the WTC and that nobody could get to any news web sites because they were too crowded. I thought "wow, weird" and as others have said, figured it was a freak accident. As I turned on the radio, they were just announcing that another plane had hit the second tower. We took my radio to the other wing where most of my "lunch group" sit and listened in horror. When they said a plane hit the Pentagon was when it really hit me. It made it very clear that someone was attacking our government. Another group on our wing had pulled out a TV that was really just set up to use for watching video tapes and managed to get CBS in on it. We crowded into a room to watch the live coverage. When the first tower collapsed, we all started crying, got into a big circle and one of our leading research doctors said a prayer. I stopped in our snack shop in mid-afternoon and saw a morning newspaper that announced "Michael Jordan decides to return to basketball". I thought to myself "That was published when everything was still normal". It seemed so odd and out of place.
Most of the rest of the day, we just listened to the radio and clustered together. Some left, but I didn't see the point of going home to an empty house, so I stayed with some others. They had big TVs with CNN coverage in our cafeteria and in the lobby of our building. That night, my sorority had an alumnae club meeting and I went, still not wanting to be alone. I am glad I spent that evening with sisters that I love.
I was coaching soccer at the time and found out that one of the girls on my team had lost her uncle, Todd Beamer, on the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania. His wife has written a book on the whole experience. We took up a collection among the soccer association parents for this poor woman, who was pregnant at the time.
For days I was glued to the tv, depressed, re-living the horror over and over. I am at a point now where I can't look at the more gruesome pictures (the people falling/jumping from the building, etc) any more.
Bush said last night that the war on terror can be won, but I'm not sure I believe that. The terrorists won that day and, even without doing anything more in the U.S., they have changed our outlook on life forever. How many flights get cancelled due to fear? How many people, when faced with the black out last summer, first thought it must be terrorism? Will any of us ever be really free the way we were before that?
Dee
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