it's been a decade, but I still remember

Ten years ago today is a day I can't forget. It's strange, because I don't remember every detail of 10 days ago, yet 10 years ago, I remember almost everything.

I was living with Jairo, Tiernan's dad, in Brittany Gregory's condo. I woke up to the sound of the radio, which was strange, because I hadn't set the alarm, and it was a very random time to have an alarm set for, anyway. I just remember hearing something about the tower evacuating or something. I just hopped up and turned it off, no idea what it was about, still confused as to why uit was going off.

Later we all got up, and I remember somehow hearing that something was happening in New York, but not exactly sure what. Brittany was in her room, door locked, as usual, and she had the only tv. We went to borrow Rosie's car who was at work. It had been my car, and she was always so nice about letting me use it if I needed to. We drove to the mall in Pineville for some reason, don't know why, exactly. Rosie had mentioned something about the attacks, and how it had to do with 911, our emergency number.

We got to the mall, and everything was closed. All the employees in Dillards were gathered in a group, and I just remember wondering what was going on. Something had happened up in New York, but I remember thinking, why are we shutting everything down here?! I had no idea the magnitude of it at the time.

So, we went to eat lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and that's when I realized what was going on. The tvs were all blaring the news reports and it was insane. I just remember being in such a shock. I could probably show you the exact booth we were sitting in, too.

So, we went back Brittany's and turned on the radio in the living room to the news reports. We were trying to listen to what was going on, and Brittany woke up and kept turning the station to music and dancing around the living room. I just remember being so angry with her ignorance. I said, "Brittany, something huge has happened, can we please just listen?" She kept wanting to dance, bored by the news. But I kept turning it back. We finally turned her tv on and that's when we saw everything. Over and over they kept replaying the plane flying into the building. She kept wanting to turn the channel to MTV, and I kept getting so pissed off at her for being so stupid (which, honestly, wasn't anything new. Anyone who knows her can tell you that). I just kept saying over and over, "this is like a movie, this is insane."
I started calling people to find out what was going on, but no one would answer the phone. I called my parents, I called other people int he church, no one would answer. I started to think, wow, maybe the rapture is real and they've been taken and this is it! The end! haha! I know, it was pretty crazy, but I mean, it was a crazy time. I finally did get some neighbors of my parents on the phone (which only made me think of the rapture even more! lol!), and they explained what was going on. I told them to tell my parents to call me if they saw them. I just remember being in such shock all day.

I think it was a long time before the true magnitude of it hit, really. Maybe not even till the 1st anniversary, when I was back home, with Tiernan, and able to really grasp what had happened.

It's still unbelievable, really. I can't imagine if I had actually been there, to see it happen, in real time. In real life.

Did it change my whole world? Personally, no, it really didn't. I just cannot imagine having been in the towers, having escaped. Having been on the street, watching it all go down. Having been one of the first responders.

Yes, this was a huge event in all of our lives, but those are the people who truly live with what happened every single day. The widows, orphans, parents who lost children.

It's still unreal it all happened. But thankfully, America, who usually loves to turn a blind eye to any and everything that is hard to watch/think about, will never, ever even attempt to forget what happened on that day 10 years ago.