September 11th

Where were you when you heard the terrible news the Twin Towers in Manhattan had been, unbelievably, hit and then were, inconceivably, collapsing?

I was driving north over the Golden Gate Bridge on my daily commute to Napa. I was listening to the radio when I heard the news America was under attack. I felt suddenly terrified to be on that bridge. That day was scary and surreal for everyone. I was reeling from my boyfriend announcing the night before that he was moving out, leaving our two year relationship. I had woken up alone that morning, crying already, thinking of our past and my future alone. My world was crashing down around me. Then a few hours later, watching the news when I arrived at my office, the world was physically crashing down. Perspective set in: the innocent lives lost, the monstrous plans carried out by misguided fanatics. My broken heart opened up and I cried not just for my personal life, but for family and friends in New York, fellow Americans and the wide world of humanity teeming with unknowable passions. My older brother Patrick was in the military, my younger brother almost old enough to be drafted. Would we go to war? Surely. All my life I'd felt safe while wars, genocide, bombs, atrocities happened in other far away places. Everything changed overnight. In the aftermath of the tragedy, my boyfriend moved back in and we clung to each other for a few weeks, before separating permanently. Both of us, along with the rest of the country, began rebuilding our lives.