Powerful cover art byArt SpiegelmanToday. What can I say about today? To start, I can't believe that it has been 10 years. Looking back, I had just turned 20 and was hopeful for the future and while most years and events of my 20's are long forgotten in a haze of drama, drinks and unfulfilled dreams, I remember that day as vividly as if it happened just last year.
By no means is my story as painful, horrific and heart-wrenching as the families of the victims of 9/11 but all New Yorkers have their story of where they were and what they were doing. So here's mine: I was in a Tuesday morning Kundalini Yoga class in the West Village and was focusing on my laborious breath of fire with my arms stretched out and thumbs up when the sound of a slight ruckus going on in the lobby outside of the classroom was heard. The rumblings of activity were escalated to the point where our yoga instructor went outside to inquire. Minutes later, she came back and turned on the lights to announce that the class would be ending early while delicately informing us that there 'seemed to be a situation' over at the World Trade Center and that it would be best if everyone went home.
A situation? How mysterious. Obviously the situation was grave enough for our class to be canceled, I thought to myself with a shrug. Famous last thoughts. Grave would be an understatement. Never in my wildest imagination would I have imagined what lied ahead. Per her instructions to go home, I grabbed my things and went outside where the towers were in full view on Greenwich Street to see the initial image that we all are familiar with. Clouds of black smoke coming out of the North Tower. There was an eery stillness and silent confusion from on-lookers on the street. Nothing about this felt right and thought it was best to leave Manhattan altogether. I immediately jumped into my nearby parked Honda Accord and avoiding downtown, hauled up to the midtown tunnel en route to my mom's house on Long Island.
I arrived to an empty home in under 40 minutes and turned on the television to learn the horrific details of what was really going on. My mother who was a flight attendant at the time for one of the carriers involved in the attack was supposed to go on a domestic flight that day. Because phone lines were tied up where I couldn't call my brother and my mom's cell going straight to voice mail. There were a few hours of frantic uncertainty because there was no one around to promise that everything was going to fine. I had no idea where my mom was.
Two hours later after watching the most horrible thing one can witness live on television, a wave of relief took over when I saw my mom coming up the driveway in uniform, her rollerboard in tow, cigarette in the other hand and the first words coming out of her mouth being "Holy Shit!". She never made it out that day and was in La Guardia when the second tower hit and was instructed by her manager to go home. Now.
For the next week and a half, our house became a boarding house for flight attendants who were based in other cities and couldn't get out of NY. We had big Italian dinners, watched the star-studded telethon and like the rest of the nation, were glued to CNN for updates. It was a time of togetherness and feeling compassion for those who were truly suffering.
I understand how fortunate I am to still have my mother who could have easily been on one of those flights (their schedules are constantly changing through trip trades where it's a game of flight attendant chess and crew members are moved around at random.) and that I didn't know any of the victims. Saying that, it doesn't mean that my heart doesn't ache for those who lost their husbands, wives, sons, daughters, parents and friends. 10 years later and the mention of 9/11 and thinking of what was lost and all those who sacrificed wells my eyes up with water as they are now while I write this.
No matter what city that I have lived, whether it's Seattle, Los Angeles or Paris, I have been proud to say that I'll always be a New Yorker. New York, you're in my heart and thoughts today.
