9/11

Scott at Transformatum asks the question, where were you five years ago today? Earlier today I thought about those poor people who lost their lives, and the change that had on our country, but until I saw Scott's post I hadn't thought much about were I was five years ago today. Here is my response on Scott's Blog:

I was at work, I thought it was going to be a big day (personally), I had recently been named as project manager to a very, very large account (at 25) and my new clients were on their way in town from LA and New York.

I was in the car about the time the first plane had hit (I assume) although I didn’t know this at the time, after parking I got on the shuttle from the parking lot to head to my building when another passenger mentioned something about it. I assumed, like everbody that it was a small plane. By the time I got to my desk, somebody said another plane had hit the WTC. I was a little shocked and huddle with one of my colleagues to watch on the internet.

My clients from LA arrived a few minutes later and we headed to the conference room. Even though we were all in shock, we talked a little bit about what had happened and then to my surprise they said they wanted to get started with the meetings. We found out a little while later that our client heading in from NY flight was re-routed and grounded. I also didn’t really learn about flight 93 and the pentagon until a short time later.

Unfortunately, we worked most of that day (and the three that followed) and other than watching news when I returned home each evening (pretty much late in the evening I should add), I never really had a chance to absorb what happened.

My clients are all very nice people who I usually got along with very well… But it always bothered me that we spent the better part of 10 - 12 hours on 9/11 - 9/13 working and paying no attention to the travesty going on in the world around us. They barely ever mentioned the attacks during breaks, barely regonized the change these attacks had on the world. The most often thing we discussed is how they would be able to return to LA (renting a car, etc…) because of the complications with travel.

Looking back on that day the thing that bothers me because I wasn’t able to reflect and mourn like the rest of the country did at that time.

Where were you on 9/11/01?