Reflection: The World Rejoices

I was 23 years old on the day of the Twin Towers attack. I worked at a retirement broker on the north side of town. We worked with two of the top insurance servicers in the country, and serviced the retirement accounts of mainly hospital workers. I hated that job. No...the people I worked with were great. I just hated being involved in people's money...and LARGE sums of money at that. 

That morning was like the rest; I remember I was running late from partying the night before. (I was 23...I could never do that crap now. Too old.) It all happened in a flash. I went to my car to get my makeup (yes I used to dress EVERY morning for work) and came back to mayhem on the television when I came back in. I still didn't know what was going on, I was too busy getting dressed.

The ride to work was just as chaotic as I drove past my favorite gas station to pick up cigarettes and confirm what I was hearing...someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center. My heart sank. Everyday I called WTC, one of the offices we worked with was in that building. People we never met but joked with, knew about their family life and bitched with when things got rough.

I ran into the office and someone set up a TV in the front of the room. No one was in their cubicles...everyone silent hanging on to every word the television spewed out. I used to hang out with a girl I worked with. Her sister worked at the Pentagon. My friend was talking to her sister until her call got dropped. Moments later, we found out a plane flew into the Pentagon. My friend screamed and passed out, fearing her sister's fate. (Her sister is fine, but moved home right after the events.)

Phones rang off the hook as people were scared their assets and retirement plans we gone with the lives and buildings. Nothing we could say reassured the people their funds were safe.

The president of our company got on the intercom (an intercom no one knew we had). In his somber voice, he explained our systems were shutting down and we were to go home and mourn our friends we had lost in the towers. We grabbed our things and left. I'd never heard such silence.

Almost ten years later, the world is rejoicing the death of Usama Bin Laden. I'm estatic to see an end of an era of hatered by the hands of one man; but we can't forget the lives that were lost at his hand. We also cannot forget where there is one dead psycotic man, there are a few more to fill his shoes.

I'm praying for the families of my office friends on this day of closure. My office friends brought me great joy. I will never forget them.