Hello 147,
I have been thinking a lot about this too. Every year at this time takes me back to that day. This morning down here in Pennsylvania was so much like that day — pure blue sky, 70s, no humidity, just absolutely perfect to start.
I will never forget walking into my 3rd year law school income taxation class first thing in the morning and seeing the professor scribble in big letters on the chalkboard “class cancelled.” Then we all went to a lounge in the law school referred to as the Goat and stood glued to the TV to watch the footage.
We were too afraid to leave the law school and were unsure if Philadelphia would be a target, so we stayed for hours in the building and it’s center courtyard. It seemed that day as if every Penn Law student had family and friends in NYC and DC, as virtually everyone hovered in the courtyard trying unsuccessfully on the cell phone lines to confirm that loved ones were safe. I can’t even find words to describe the looks on my classmates’ faces. And all the while, I kept looking up at the clear blue sky — how did such evil come out of it that day? I could not understand. Things became very quiet in Philadelphia that day as the only things flying overhead were military planes.
Eleven years later I still cry when I take the time to recall that day. My father’s family, Slavic immigrants to New York City, helped build some of the tallest skyscrapers, including the World Trade Center.
I was 24, and all of a sudden, the world separated into “before” and “after.”