9-11

Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. I can't believe it was seven years ago! I still remember so vividly where I was and what I was doing that day, even that week. That day will be to us like the day of Kennedy's assassination is to our parent's generation, and the day Pearl Harbor was bombed is to our grandparent's generation. Everyone will have an answer to the question, "Where were you on September 11, 2001?"
It was a Tuesday morning, and I was suppossed to be at work at nine. I always had the TV on while I got ready for work, and that particular morning I was talking to my mom on the phone, so the TV was muted. I got off the phone just as I needed to head out the door for work. When I went to the TV to shut it off, I saw the image of one of the two towers smoking, and thought to myself, what movie is this? I shut off the tv and left my apartment, having no clue of what I just saw. When I arrived at work I could tell something was wrong. All the salesman, who were usually dispersed throughout the store, were standing at the front counter in a big group. As soon as I opened the doors they all turned to me and said, "have you seen?" Not knowing what they were talking about, they walked me over to the wall of big screen tv's (I was working at Vann's, an appliance and electronics store) and thats when I realized that what I had seen on my TV at home was not a movie. I looked just in time to see the second plane hit. My co-workers and I stood there all morning, surrounded by TV's, and watch the towers fall, and all the commentaries afterwards, including replay after replay. It was so surreal. Everywhere you turned was a TV showing the footage. Needless to say we had no customers that day. In fact, the only person who came in the doors was a photographer for the local newspaper. He photographed all of us perched on stools, watching the wall of TV's, with faces in our hands, and tears in our eyes. The next morning on of his photographs made front page of the paper. I was in college that year, and campus was alive with patriotism. On the Friday after I remember walking through the student union building and buying a purple ribbon to pin on my shirt. After that I went to our local Stake Center to watch President Hinckley's address. It was so beautiful, comforting, and uplifting. I remember everyone saying that it was not a time to hole up and be sad, but I time to be strong. We should not look at it as an end, but as a reason to unite. I was in the market to buy a new car, so I took someone's advice, to invest in the economy, and I drove home that Friday, the 14th, and bought myself a new car. The salesman took a picture of me infront of my new car that day, and I will never forget it, because you can see the purple ribbon still pinned to my shirt.