9/11: A look back

September 11, 2001 is one day I will never forget. It boggles my mind that it has been eight years since that world-changing day.

I got into my office probably around 9:30/10 a.m. although don't recall what was on my "to do" list that day. Reports were just starting the trickle in about the two planes that hit the World Trade Center towers. I remember being struck by the absolute naivete of one television reporter who made a comment about air traffic controllers not doing their jobs and hoping her future in his business would be short lived. More than anything, I thought about how many lives would forever be changed because of the events which transpired that day.

I wondered how many kids would lose a mother or father - or both - how many wives would lose a husband, how many husbands would lose a wife. A couple months later as I boarded my first flight since 9/11 and waited in a long security line, I thought about people just like me who were going through the same process of taking laptop computers out of their travel bags, waiting for their chance to collect their belongings and head to their gate. Only they had no way of knowing it would be the last flight they ever took.

Having lost both of my parents to a plane crash, I guess those people who perished in planes on 9/11 were the ones I initially mourned the most. I only saw the images of the planes hitting the towers once. To this day, I have to look away or change the channel if I see those images flashing on the screen. However, the mere thought of people sitting in their offices doing their jobs with no sense that their lives were about to be end still sends chills up my spine.

I did not lose a family member in the 9/11 attacks but couldn't even try to guess how many people I know who did suffer the greatest loss of all on that day.

Out of respect to those who perished and those who have attempted to move on following the tragic loss of a loved one or loved ones, this is the last blog entry I will make on this day. I simply can't imagine that there is anything more important on this day than remembering the victims of September 11, 2001.