Planes Crashing

That’s the thing about this city, there is so much to hate but even more to love. I woke up this morning to the bright sun shining through my windows. I opened my windows as wide as they would go. I live in a five story apartment building on the fourth floor so I almost never open my window. New York is just so loud and smelly I prefer to keep my windows shut. 

I went about my morning as normal. I turned the stove on and popped two pieces of bread into the toaster. I turned on the tv to the daily news. “Good morning New York City, with highs of 76 degrees and lows of just 61 degrees it is shaping up to be a beautiful day in the Big Apple.” I crack my eggs onto the pan. i hum a tune from a song I heard a couple days ago. It was an old Bob Marley song “Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright.” I keep humming softly as I put my eggs on a plate. My toast came up from the toaster and i spread strawberry jelly on to them. I check the time its 8:40. I grab my book and head out to my terrace. It has been super nice the last couple of days but i’m not complaining. I have the perfect view of the city. I have a great view of the twin towers and all the buildings surrounding it. 

A great day. That’s what today is suppose to be. All my hopes for the day went out the window when I saw a plane crash into the world tower. How does that even happen? Did the pilot just not see the tower or something? I watch in horror as one of the towers goes up in flames. People all around the base of the tower run screaming for the streets. Adults look like chickens running with their heads cut off trying to get away from the tower. Others are running into the flames racing against time to get people out before anything else happens. I should be doing something, anything to help but i’m frozen. I can’t watch this anymore, my heart is breaking for all the poor people trapped inside having no escape. All the families about to being torn apart by this plane. Both towers were now evacuating on to the streets.

A second plane was coming in low across the sky. It’s almost like I was having a flashback because the second plane came crashing into the second tower at almost the same spot the first plane fit the first tower. Nothing seems real. A tears started rolling down my eyes at a steady pace. New York is falling apart in front of my eyes.

“Good afternoon New York. Today we are sending out love and prayers to everyone in the World Trade Center Towers and anyone who knows anyone in there. It has been two days since the terrorist attack.” The news was soft in the back round. Everything has been shut down. Time has stopped, everything is silent. i turn off my tv unable to watch anymore of anything. The world feels so different. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, even my friends who don’t live in New York all called me to check in on me. I told them all the same thing, “I’m fine, just shaken up about the whole thing.” I didn’t tell anyone that i saw the whole thing happen. I saw at least hundreds of people dying or trying to get out of the way of death. 

Everything that just happened makes me think of when I was young and just first moved to the city. I grew up Ephraim, Wisconsin. It was a beautiful town with a huge lake and great people. It was small though. Not enough for me. To quiet, no new people, nothing exciting ever happening. I knew I always needed more, so I applied for NYU. The second I got in I headed right for New York. My little hunda was packed air tight with practically everything I own. My windows were rolled down, radio blasting everything seemed perfect. 

Now looking around I would kill to have nothing happen. That’s what everyone over looks about the city. I love the noise and the crowds until it becomes a target. Big, open easy for anyone to attack. No one cares about small towns about small towns in the midwest but everyone wants to be in New York until we become a target. Moving home sounds real good right now. 

I am just sitting in my room on the verge of teams when I hear trumpets. I open my window and look out. A few buildings down a man was playing the National Anthem on his trumpet. Someone joined in on their guitar strumming softer than the trumpet. Other people started to notice the playing and came out on their balconies and on to the street. Some joined hands with each other, others sang out as loud as they could the words. I smiled for the first time since I watched the World Trade Center crumble to the ground. Once the song ends the trumpet player played the start of another song. People were all out together in the streets dancing, laughing. comforting each other. Looking fro up on my fourth floor window everyone below me looked like a family. A family of people coming together after a horrible tragedy. 

This city will break your heart. It will destroy it over and over again, but it will love you. It will give you a second family with all the love in the world to give.  The second I came to New York I knew it was home. I knew I would never love a place like I love New York. I also knew that everyone hates their home sometimes. Something happens and I feel like giving up and going home to Wisconsin. New York is my home now and i have to take everything that comes with it the good and the bad.