September 11th 2001, a date where many people around the world know exactly where they were and what they were doing.
I was nine, my mum picked me up from a after school club and we went to a friend’s house where we all watched the horror unfold on TV, I remember the broadcasters’ screams as they witnessed the second plane strike the twin towers, I struggled to understand what I was seeing, the smoke, the shock in my parents’ faces, the horror, the fear. I wondered why it was happening, what did all of those innocent people do to deserve their fate as they started work for the day? Suddenly everything seemed to have changed in my life.
In the years since I have watched a couple of documentaries with stories from survivors and eyewitnesses. Initially I wanted to write about the unsung heroes of that fateful day but morally I felt I couldn’t do so as everyone in their own way was a hero; some ran up the stairs towards the danger in a effort to save as many as they could, some did everything in their power to help strangers get to safety, some dug through the mountain of debris to help save someone’s life, some stayed calm and listened to the heart-breaking phone calls from those trapped above the fires and relayed messages to their loved ones.
Our Frost Magazine editor was at an auction sale. The sale stopped, people went home in silence, raw with shock. Her husband was in a meeting with Americans nearby. They rushed to the airport. What did it all mean? everyone thought. What? What was going to happen?
In 2008 I visited New York City and one of the many places I went to was Ground Zero, which was at the time under construction as the memorial was being built. Unlike the other stops on my trip, it was not full of hustle and bustle and crowds of people. It was quiet and sobering and incredibly emotional. I struggle to find the words to describe exactly what it was like , unless you have been there it is something you may not understand.
So many changes, but I speak of only those I experienced: before 9/11 as I flew out to America, it was not necessary to have a ticket before walking around a airport or to wait at the gate, passenger ID’s were not checked prior to boarding a plane and the only item that people had to remove when passing through security was loose change. Airport staff did not need background checks prior to employment and checked baggage was never scanned.
But most importantly for that nine year old that was me, is that from that age I realised our safety is not a given, because up until that moment this child named Natalie had assumed the rock like foundations on which her life was lived were assured forever. Out of the blue , I realised, everything can change as it did that day.
I also learned that this is when the rebuilding begins… Life resumes. We go on. 
9/11 is a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. It was a day that stopped the world, one that showed the worst and the best in so many.
Images courtesy of Kim Knight.
