I was sitting in my living room, getting ready for work. I turned on the TV to channel 5, then 7, then 4 and finally had a picture on channel 2 (CBS). I didn’t understand why all those other channels didn’t have pictures. Then, I saw a picture of both towers engulfed in smoke. I had no clue what was going on, I thought they were showing the bombing from years ago for some reason. As I tried to figure out what the other picture they were showing was (it was a far away picture of the Pentagon), I heard the announcer say that the Trade Center had been hit by two jet planes. I sat there in disbelief. I live no more than 15 or 20 miles from the city that I love to spend time in, I went to college in Staten Island and could see the skyline every day, I found comfort in watching it’s lights at night. And when the first tower fell, I watched it with tears in my eyes, praying that no one I knew was there and hoping that the other tower would not fall. Hoping we would have one tower left, and no more people would die.

I called my friends in DC to make sure they were okay, and I tried desperately to find my friends who worked in the city. I later found out that I lost family members and friends in the Trade Center attacks. I still cry when I think of that day or when I watch the footage on TV. It’s a day that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.