Either in the terror attacks, or the battles that have been fought since.
September 11, 2001 was a beautiful sunny day. It was my second day at my new job at AT Kearney. I was just 25, newly engaged and reveling in the success of making my Sr. Analyst role by 25, a goal I put out there for myself during the first months of my first post-graduation job at EDS.
Having boarded the train at 7:15 AM CST, with no radio or media of any type, I was oblivious to what was occurring in New York. My first inkling was at Walgreen's, where I'd stopped to buy my daily Evian bottle of water. It was there I heard they were evacuating the Sears Tower. No one knew why, and I was then a bit terrified, because that was right across the street from my USG building where ATK was housed.
I headed up the elevator to our floor, where everyone started talking about the airplane on TV. I arrived in front of the TV to join the crowd in seeing the second airplane. Then we watched the Tower fall. The feelings are not something I could put into words. I knew we had offices in New York, but at that time I didn't know anyone. There were those in the crowd though who did, and I could see their terror & pain.
Our boss came & broke up the crowd, because for whatever was going on, we had a forecast to submit.
It was not a half hour later, we were informed the City of Chicago was evacuating the City. All commuter trains were outbound.
It was surreal.
I recall exactly what I was wearing & the conversations Mr. M & I had before I left the office & when I arrived home to our townhome.
I recall calling my dad (at work in Michigan) when I got home to see if he would be recalled to the National Guard (recently retired Col in the MI NG), only to find out that he couldn't think about it because my mother was in need of emergency surgery in Florida, but the insurance building had been evacuated & there was no one around to approve it, so my dad was fighting to find someone who could approve it for her.
Mr. M worked to get in touch with his parents, as they were on a trip at that time.
The attacks that day put a lot of things into perspective. It changed a lot of lives. I still pray for those who lost their life or the life of someone they loved dearly. I pray for our soldiers out there fighting to keep us free & safe. I pray for our law enforcement who work every day to ensure our safety.
And I pray, Jacob never has to experience the feelings I did that day.
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