Remembering

On September 11, 2001, I had 2 job interviews scheduled. C and I had just moved to Seattle over Labor Day weekend and were actively job hunting. I had to get up early that morning and drive through a strange city to get to the interview. It didn’t help that I had just gotten my drivers’ license in August.

So I wasn’t paying that much attention to the morning show DJs who were babbling about something happening, and that maybe it happened on that day because 911 was the emergency number for the US. I went to the interview without realizing what had happened.

I don’t even remember meeting with people that morning, though I’m sure I must have. I also took a test or two in a large and kind of dark conference room. It wasn’t until I was leaving, and I caught a glance of the TV in the company’s reception area that I had any idea what was going on.

I made it back to the house we were staying at and turned on the TV. At some point, my phone rang. It was my mother telling me my brother was okay (he was still in the service then an stationed at a base in Baltimore), but that he hadn’t been able to get ahold of our father. Could I pass the message on to him.

Overall, it was a surreal morning. In some ways, it reminded me of Oklahoma City, except that on that day, I had been at the student union, surrounded by people, and this morning, I was alone.

I did go to my interview that afternoon. It didn’t occur to me not to. It was with an agency, and while I was waiting, a woman walked by and told those of us in the reception area how amazing we were for even showing up that day.

 

I believed that day, and I still believe, that the only real response to an attack of that nature is to not let it change who we are. I believe in remembrance. I believe in honoring those who gave their lives to save others- at the Towers, at the Pentagon. But I don’t believe that someone else’s hatred of who we are should force us to change.