[Azhiri]

It must have been so harrowing to actually be so close to it. What a terrible thing to see, even after the fact.

9/11 has actually drastically affected my life.

My father had a very important job with a huge yearly income ten years ago. We lived in Destin, FL back then and we were one of the wealthiest families in town. We had such an indulgent lifestyle; my mother didn't work and before I was in school (I was in kindergarten that particular year) we would lounge on the beach, go shopping all day. We lived within half an hour of my mom's family and my cousins, and we saw them enough that they seemed part of everyday life, not just an extended family.

Anyway, I remember sitting in class, it had just started, when the assistant principal came into the classroom looking pretty upset. She said she had to talk to our teacher in the hall for a minute. They came back in afterward and turned on the news, where we saw footage of the incident. I thought it was just a movie, I didn't pay attention for more than a few minutes. Then about half an hour later my mother checked me out of school, she was pretty upset. She explained that New York City was under attack (at this point nobody really knew what was going on, whether it was an accident, whether there was more to come or who might have done it). We lived very close to a big military base and there were concerns that if we were indeed being attacked, they'd hit military bases as well, so my mom wanted to get out of town, but we stayed.

Anyway, many people lost their jobs after that day; my dad was one of them. We had to sell our house and move away from our friends, my mother's family, our wonderful neighbors, some of whom we still have contact with to this day. We had to move to Alabama, where we are now, near my dad's mother, so that my dad could work at NASA. I think something changed in my mom. She was just different. She became depressed, started drinking, among other things. My parents got divorced. I haven't seen most of my aunts or my cousins in years; the whole family has since kind of scattered and broken up.

I can't help but think sometimes how different a person I would be today if 9/11 had never happened because, even though it was bound to happen somewhere down the line, I still think of 9/11 as being a driving force behind my parents' divorce. The divorce itself affected me more than I can say.

My heart goes out to everyone who lost a family member, a friend, or an entire lifestyle and home that day.