9 years ago

september 11th will forever be one of those events from history that everyone remembers where they were when they first heard or saw the news about the world trade towers being attacked.

for me, i had recently been laid off and had a bunch of airline miles to use, so i went to visit a buddy in anchorage alaska. a trip that was supposed to be a week turned into a month; partially because i still didnt have a job and then partially because there was no air travel allowed. i remember sleeping on the couch when the phone rang. it was a friends mom who was calling to see if he was being recalled into the air force and whether the united states was going to war. we turned on the tv and basically stared at it for the next few days.

being in alaska on september 11th was surreal. you are so far away from "the lower 48" that you get the feeling you are in another country. i both wanted to be home but also somewhat glad that i was so far away at the same time. and the fact that the planes originated out of boston made it even more eerie. i started playing mind games about whether i could have been on one of those planes. what if my buddy lived in LA, the destination of the flights, instead of anchorage?

when flights finally resumed and i got back to boston it wasnt the boston that i had left. at the time i lived across the street from the coast guard station. it was now surrounded with sand bags and concrete barriers with security at checkpoints carrying automatic weapons. being without a job i wanted to just go to lower manhattan and volunteer in any way that i could. but by that point citizens were being asked to stay away so that professionals could do their jobs of trying to locate people and clear debris.

to this day i will not watch video of those planes hitting the towers and it strikes a still raw nerve seeing any photos. there have been discussions about making 9/11 a holiday and national day of remembrance. while at first this seemed like a good idea to me, i would hate to see it just become another three day weekend complete with car sale promotions and backyard barbeques.

nine years ago my cousin was having the time of his life in high school. now he is a marine serving in afghanistan. today i will be recalling the horrors of watching the news that fateful morning and praying for the safety of my cousin.

never forget.

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