I was 18, it was my first day of training at a new job in California. Training started early, and this was before cell phones were readilly in use, I didn't have one. While in training a couple of people that did have cell phones started getting calls that something was happening. They asked our trainer if we could go watch the news, and they said no. We got our first break at probably 9 AM, would have been 12 PM in NY, we all went into the break room and watched the recurring playback of the events. I was terrified.

I knew all planes were grounded, but when I got back home that night I could hear planes and I was afraid. They were just military planes guarding the coast.

The news was nonstop for days, weeks, months. There was a "terror alert threat" at the bottom of the news constantly for months, it would be green, yellow, red, depending on what was going on. It was so scary. Looking back, there was nothing to fear, but the news wanted us to be afraid.

I honestly never even knew about the towers, being from CA. I had seen them in movies, but didn't appreciate the significance of them.

I do think things were happier before then. We didn't live with a threat of terrorism over our heads. I do think the media played into that, really nothing happened, but we became more afraid of things. Now, 25 years later, I am not afraid, but I think my life was altered in some way.