Daily Dub

That day….

So as I sit here and watch the 9/11 memorial service, all I can do is think about where I was & how I could have been in that tower that day.

I was in college in North Jersey & also interning at a new HBO entertainment website that was based just a couple blocks from the towers.

Normally I would go into the office at least once a week for a meeting, and to talk to the other college interns about projects. That week I had planned to go in….that day. But I guess the normal lazy college student in me kicked in & somehow I slept through my alarm clock radio going off.

I had it set to Star & Buc Wild’s morning show on Hot97 that morning & if you know anything about them, you know they like to joke and prank a lot. So when I somewhat awoke, right before the first tower hit, I just said to myself, “here they go again” thinking it was another prank. But then I toss in the bed a little more & turn to CNN and was in shock….they were not joking, this was for real.

The thought kept racing in my head that I was going to be at the office at that time. You see, I would take a train to Newark, NJ & then take the Path train over to the WTC all the time. Then just walk over to the job.

I then started getting loud in our dorm suite and woke up everybody else. We all huddled in the living room wondering what was happening to our country. The worst thoughts instantly fill my head, thinking we were about to enter the next world war.

We all try reaching loved ones, but every phone was down. We look outside to the dorm courtyard, there was an weird feeling in the air, crazy quiet.

I go outside for a second, I could literally smell the smoke from the city in the air….all the way in Jersey.

I finally made a call to the parents to let them know I was ok, only to have the call drop seconds later due to the cell phone networks going down in the area.

I go back in the dorm, all of us guys are trying to understand what was happening. But we also kept thinking about how we all were about to go to war. All of the old stories our folks told us about the draft hit our thoughts. Luckily that has not happened…..yet.

After everything happened that day, you could feel all of the patriotism throughout the area. Flags everywhere, a different type of atmosphere. Being the ROTC military guy that I was back then, I was ready to go over and serve.

(I actually did enlist, but that’s a story for another time.)

Not one American, especially not one from the tri-state area, will ever be the same since that day. We will always remember what happened to those people & where we were at that exact moment if time. May god be with you all.