Remembering September 11, 2001

I can't believe it was 8 years ago today.

I was working at an off-Broadway theatre in NYC during that time and we had just opened our show on September 10th, the night before.  We all went out after the show until the wee hours in the morning on 9/11.  I was sleeping when the first plane hit the first tower.  I started getting calls from my mom, first on my cell phone, then on the apartment phone.  Didn't she know I was sleeping???  I finally and luckily answered the phone after my roommate answered it and she told us what was going on.  I was telling her there was nothing to be worried about, that it was probably a fluke and not an attack.  While we were talking, I looked out my bedroom window (I could see the whole city from it) and I saw the second plane coming down the skyline and hit the second tower.  I was in shock, as was the rest of the country.  I remember the rest of that day, week, month and year living in New York.  It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

As I sit and think about that day,  what I will never forget is how honest and generous mankind became after the attacks.  Hero's saving strangers, people were helping people carry their groceries home, people dropping money on the street and someone running after them to give it to them, men getting up from a subway seat to give a woman, older person, pregnant woman a seat,  people crying with strangers and forming a bond.  No one expected anything in return, no one stopped to think what will I get out of this, people just did good deeds.

While I try to live my life My goal going forward is to not look down and only see what I am doing, but to look around and see that someone may have just dropped their last twenty dollars on the ground.   I'm not going to wait for another tragedy, in my personal life or the world, make me open my eyes and help other people!

While we remember those who lost their lives today, let's make this a celebration of the opportunity we have to change the world each day!