Here’s a post I wrote on September 11, 2006.  It still sums up this day in history for me.

Five years on

Just looking at today’s date immediately sends me back five years.  We were living in Virginia and I was working in Washington DC.  I’ll never forget standing at the westward window of our office watching the smoke billowing from the Pentagon.  That was the moment I came to understand why they call it terrorism.  It’s an extremely apt term.

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 11: People carry flags of the U.S. states, and of other countries that had people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on September 11, 2011 in Washington, DC. The nation is commemorating the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people after two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and one crash landed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Looking at the pale, worried faces of the women I worked as they rushed to evacuate our building, I struggled to push down the feeling of panic and shake off the cold grip of fear.  The anger didn’t come until later. 

I can’t believe it’s been five years.  Each anniversary of 9/11 finds me thinking about the people I was working with that morning, and I wonder where life has taken them. I still feel connected to them, and probably always will, because of the terrible events of that day.