September 11th: Five Years Later
September 11, 2006 
Its been five years since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Attacks that I witnessed through my dorm room window in disbelief. An event that has changed who I am and the world that I live in.
The good news in all of this is that I’m still alive to remember those that aren’t.
The photo above is a pretty good representation of what I saw out my window on September 10, 2001, when I wrote in this blog that “the towers have disappeared. I can’t see them anymore in the fog.” Little did I know what would occur the very next day.
Five years later, I can still clearly remember several details of what happened that morning. I can remember the clear blue sky and the towers falling. I can remember eating in the glass-ceiling cafeteria the next day worrying a plane would crash through right into me.
I can remember the weeks and months after that day when the acrid smoke would blow north from the illuminated-nightly Ground Zero wreckage and make my eyes tear and make it hard to breathe. I can remember the marital law checkpoints south of 14th Street and then south of Canal Street.
I also remember the sense of community that came out of the chaos. How as a dorm, as a college, as a Manhattan resident, as an American, we came together like never before.
Am I changed by that day today, five years later? The answer is yes. I promised I would never forget, like many millions of others that were there that day.
But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t move on.
Of course, its difficult to fully move on from witnessing such horrific events. Especially when every September news networks run stories and footage 24 hours a day and everyone around you recalls where they were when they found out about the attacks.
I will be returning to Ground Zero this year, as I have each year since the attacks. And I will photograph what I see, just like last year and the year before and the year before that. Its my way of overseeing the progress at the site, the rebuilding process, and the creation of the memorial, which I undoubtedly will visit whenever it is created. My mother mentioned to me that she didn’t think I should go back this year, that it would dredge up all the old feelings and the sorrow of that day.
But it isn’t that way anymore. I see progress and how people are moving on with their lives. And that inspires me to push forward every day.
Of course, the world has changed, politics have changed, and every year we make sure that we haven’t forgot. However, I always wondered how long it would take me to fully return to something seemingly like my life before 9/11.
Apparently it was 5 years.
ALSO: NYT: Twin Beams to Light Sky Again. But After 2008?, The Hole in the City’s Heart.
September 11th, 2006 at 10:12 PM
wow. That is really eerie.