Remembering 9/11

Everyone has their stories....their recollections, their emotions, their grief... and I'm not any different. September 11th, 2001 is burned into my brain.
I remember running late for work and having the news on while I was getting ready when I heard the report of a plane hitting the WTC. Bizarre - how would that happen? Then I saw the second plane hit the second tower. Terrorism was not even a word in my vocabulary. Terrorism? We're America - we don't have terrorism. But it was mom who made me aware that we were, indeed, under attack.
The next few hours felt like a blur. The plane hitting the Paragon - what the hell was happening? Was all of America to be hit and destroyed? Then the plane in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania!!!! That's one state over! Were we next? What were they doing? Who was they?
My boyfriend, at the time, worked right next to the Cleveland airport. I was calling him every five minutes with reports and begging him to leave - to run for safety. The towers were falling - hundreds of souls devoured. "Please come home. Just come home so I know you're safe."
We were on pins and needles the rest of the day - were there more planes? More bombs? More attacks planned?
I went to work that night - trying to have some sort of normalcy; To give the kids somewhere to go so they didn't have to see the images. To not have to see their parents in fear.
Afterwards, I went to my boyfriends apartment and we just held each other and watched the t.v. We hardly spoke - maybe an "oh my God" was muttered as we made our arms tighter around each other. It was unbelievable. This couldn't have happened - couldn't.
I don't think I slept that night. I laid on the floor of my living room with my dad and watched the news until the sun came up. Twenty-four hours had passed and we still could not believe.
It's been five years - and I still feel the tight pain in my chest when I see the images. Life is different now. I pray that all the souls that were lost that day are at peace. I pray for our troops and for our country. I will never forget that day. Nor will I forget standing at Ground Zero and taking it all in. It evokes an emotion all its own. Life is different.