7 years

7 years ago today I woke up to my alarm going off, walked across the room to turn it off, and quickly jumped in the shower. Dried my hair, dressed in jeans and an olive green v-neck and headed downstairs for breakfast with my dad. He wasn't up. It was dark outside. I looked at the clock and realized it was 1:51 am. I went upstairs to my room to find my alarm still set for 5:30. I'd imagined the ringing.

7 years ago today I sat at the breakfast table with my parents (at 6 am this time, rather than 2 am) and recounted my bizarre wake-up. As I was leaving for school, I tripped on the weathering strip between the door and the floor and fell on my face onto my parents' front porch. A skinned hand and another dent to my often broken nose and I was good to go, with my mom saying to me, "Be careful Em, I think this is going to be one of those days."

7 years ago today I was driving to school in the shaggin' wagon when I heard on the country radio station that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought it must have been a small plane, that it was a freak accident, and had no idea there would be injuries to anyone but the pilot. I called my parents. I took a Math test. I had no idea what was going on.

Every year for the last 7 years on this day, without even thinking about the date, I've woken up in the middle of the night thinking something was wrong. On 9-11-02 I woke up at the crack of dawn thinking it was time to get up again. Last year we were staying with Mr. B's family in DC and I woke up at 2am thinking a cricket was on my face. Early this morning I woke up screaming, ran to the light switch and started pulling pillows off of the bed looking for the worms that I was convinced B had thrown on my face. It didn't even cross my mind until I was driving to work that it was September 11th. The subconscious is a powerful thing.

This day shook me in a profound way and changed the lives of everyone I know in someway. I had no idea when I woke up at 1:30 that morning that losing a couple minutes of my REM cycle wouldn't be the most monumental part of my day. I had no idea that this day would shape the lives of the boys I'd gone to Prom with and the friends I had yet to meet who'd go off to serve our country. I'll never forget, and my dreams are doing a good job of reminding me.