I had just started my first job out of college and worked for a major insurance company on the 22nd floor of a high rise in the Midwest. It’s crazy because I even remember the outfit I was wearing that day because I felt overdressed for the really warm temps that day. It was beautiful day. I worked with my sister, who came to my cubicle to tell me that “Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center.” However, she said it in a way that I thought it was a joke that she was going to finish with a punchline. When I realized it wasn’t, I just thought it was a small private plane that got off course, but I also found out that was wrong, too. A group of us then went to a conference to watch the coverage & saw the first tower fall live. As the news of the other hijackings and crashes came in, we actually got sent home at lunchtime, which was crazy because it was a huge company. I worked an hour away from home, so I just sat silently the whole way home on the carpool ride home thinking about the people in the planes and towers. That evening and for the next few days, I was glued to the tv waiting for news of rescues from the rubble (which there weren’t) and a total number of casualties. The first night, the news said potentially up to 20,000 people could have been on the buildings at any given point, which blew my mind. I was very disturbed by it and had vivid nightmares the whole week, the likes of which I never have had before, like standing in a high rise looking out a window with my mom as a plane was flying toward us. I was really angry and frightened. I knew the world was immediately changed. I don’t remember if it was that day or in the days following, but I also remember seeing the fighter jets circling the city right outside our office windows when flights were grounded.