Friends

Seven years ago today I woke up and went to work, just as I did any other day. Not knowing that by the end of the day my life would be forever changed. I have no direct link to the towers, or the Pentagon, or flight 93. My connection is simply that I was born in America, and I love my country.

At the time of the tragedy, I worked at Reliable Automotive, in the phone room with 7 other guys. All we knew was that our customers were telling us that something bad had happened and two planes had flown into the WTC. We worked in a sales room in Kansas. No radio, no way to know if what we were hearing was real or not. One of our managers found a TV in a training room that was rarely used. We brought the TV into our sales room and sat there amazed. Throughout the day we sat in silence, shocked at the events unfolding before us. I remember calling my parents to tell them I loved them. I was scared and unsure what might happen next. For all we knew at the time world war three was about to commence... and America was a target whether we liked it or not.

That day I learned that even in the worst of times there were people all around me that I loved and cared about. I worked at Reliable for a few more years after 9-11, but we were never as close as we were right after the attacks. It made us feel better to be together while all the bad things were happening outside of our little sales room. I miss those guys, and I hope they all know that they were good guys to work with, even if we are on opposing companies for the time being.

Since September 11th, I have moved into a home with my wonderful husband. We are newlyweds, our anniversary is in a couple of weeks. I hope to have children some day. I appreciate all that was done since that day to try to keep our freedoms intact. Our family lost a loved one to the war from an IED. I pray that someday we will all be able to live as one world community. We are all different, yet so much the same. Pray for everyone.