The Brown Family

If anyone knows me, they now that I am not a morning person. So when my phone rang shortly after 8:45 am one beautiful September morning I was a little annoyed. I still has 15 minutes to sleep before I had to get up to make it to my 10:00 am job where I was a teller at a local bank.

It was my mom and see seemed a little panicky.

"Turn on the TV and see this"

I watched as the second plane hit on live TV. I couldn't even begin to understand the gravity of what was going on.

Jason, just my boyfriend at the time, was at Purdue. All phone lines where busy. You could not get through. I guess everyone was checking on their loved ones...just in case.

As I drove to work and listened intently to the events unfolding...I remember being scared that planes were going to begin falling out of the sky.

By the time I arrived at work, we had a TV set up in the lobby and watched as things started to become clear that this was not an accident. We watched the plane hit the pentagon. The towers fall. United 93. I will never forget the disparity. The sadness.

There were very few customers that day. But alot of calls. Alot of reassuring and alot of older people wanting large sums of money. I think some people feared that the whole economy was on the verge of collapse. Especially those who lived during the stock market crash.

I made my best friend and her boyfriend spend the night at my apartment. So I wouldn't have to be alone. CNN was on all night. I would drift off and wake up to images that will forever be with me. People who survived, firefighters, police. Heroes.

My life was forever changed that day. Continued to be changed because of that day. The war on terror...the Iraqi war...all lead back to it.

When me and Jason first meet and I found out he was in the reserves, I asked him if he was scared to go to war. "Who's gonna go to war with the US" he said. That was 2000. What a difference a year makes.

I wasn't a Christian then. I am sure that I would have handled that day different if I had been. I do remember that all the sudden God becoming center stage in America. In God We Trust was all the sudden ok again. I didn't see God in that day. I saw hate and anger. Now, I see his mercy, his love.

The patriotism, the coming together as a nation was amazing. People sacrificed for each other. People wanted to fight and win over terrorism. No politics, no party lines. People were courteous and nice. It's sad that it takes a national tragedy to show love to your neighbor.

I will never forget and I am sure you won't either. So many things will never be the same.

I pray for those left behind and those who's lives have been forever affected. May God give them peace in their pain.