Recollections of 9/11 on its 7th anniversary

September 11, 2001. the day the world as we knew it changed into the world as we know. Like most of you, the day is emblazoned into my memory.

It was a tuesday with a bit of a chill in the morning air, a clear sky with some meandering clouds - a beautiful late summer day. Gina and I had just returned from a whirlwind, 2-week trip to Japan. i'd celebrated my 31st birthday twice (we flew east across the international date line after midnight on 9/9). It was our first day back at work in the gulag at Drexel - the new academic year about to begin.

I had a staff meeting, at which I was showing vacation pix, until someone came into the office and mentioned - pretty casually - that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Being the media relations person for the University, I put finding faculty experts to address the media in building construction, engineering and integrity, telecommunications and aviation, among other topics, on my to do list. And we went on with our meeting. Until the second plane hit. Meeting over.

Once is an accident, twice is a pattern. NYC was under attack. My heart sunk. were there more planes to rain down from the sky, bringing with them fear and death? Was Philly next? What about LA? ... We all know the rest - the horrible, mind bending events that followed - the people jumping, the building falling, the heroic EMS personnel putting their lives on the line and dying in the process. The heroes of flight 93. "Let's Roll."

i tried calling my friend kevin, who works in Manhattan, but couldn't get through ... I wondered if he was still alive, even tho he didn't work at the WTC. I finally got an email from him and i could feel his fear in his messages, not knowing WTF was going on. he eventually made it home. Our friend Donna was in Manhattan that day also and got aboard one of the last subways off the island. She made it home too.

Unlike our friend Stephen, who's from Long Island, Gina and I didn't lose anyone in the attacks of 9/11. A year later, Stephen came to our place on LBI on 9/11 as a way to get away from the memories. It didn't seem like it worked. He was still shaken and i'm sure still is to this day. He's since gotten married, has a son and is living the dream. Friends of his - classmates, kids he grew up with - didn't have that opportunity due to a faceless, hateful and cowardly enemy who didn't like where they lived. The day the world changed, indeed.

It all really makes me take stock - how blessed, lucky and THANKFUL I am for the life I lead and where i lead it.