Ten years ago today was a beautiful fall day as I recall. I was 11 days into my new career, and I got up and left for work, just like any other day.

I had been at work for maybe half an hour when my phone rang. It was my co-worker Carol asking if I had heard anything about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I immeadiately went to cnn.com. It took several minutes for the site to load, but I finally got a video stream open where I watched video of a plane, just as Carol had described, flying into the side of one of the WTC buildings. It was 9:03 and, at first, I thought I was watching a recap, but I became confused because it still said “live” on the screen. The video was choppy and I recall the audio being unintelligible, so it was hard to tell what was going on.

Carol then showed up at my office and we walked to the staff lounge down the hall, where there was a TV. Several people were already gathered there and it didn’t take long to confirm my fear that the video I had just watched was a second plane crash. I believe I was still watching as we learned that the third plane had crashed into the Pentagon, the south tower of the WTC collapsed (which we witnessed live), and that a fourth plane had crashed in Shanksville.

The rest of the day is a blur. I remember returning to my office and tuning my radio to a news station. I also remember my then-twelve-year-old sister emailing me to make sure I was OK, as since she didn’t know where Rochester was in relation to NYC. I distinctly remember that I didn’t get a whole lot of work done that day.

Its hard to believe it already been ten years.