September 11

five years ago, it was my junior year of college. i lived with jess and jen wienard and shawna anderson. shawna and i shared a room, i slept on the top bunk. the morning of sept 11, i slept in. i shut my alarm off instead of going to my 8am 'introduction to psychology' class. hey i was going to be sleeping, it was just a matter of sleeping at a desk or in my bed...i chose the bed.

shawna came in and said, "katie, you should come out here, something is happening in new york. a plane just hit a building." i remember her tone because it was almost like, she was still trying to convince herself that it was real and not just a movie. either that or she was inviting me to play a game of monopoly, it was that kind of excitement in her voice. and for the next few hours, we sat there, the four of us, watching the news and figuring out if everyone my roommates knew was okay. they were from boston and had a lot of friends in the city.

it's still so surreal. i got on the freeway this morning and thought, 'did i really want to get on this freeway? there are a lot of people and i'm pretty much trapped."

after watching the news and everything for a few hours, i headed downtown grand rapids to the amway grand plaza hotel because i had a job interview and no one would answer the phone there to see if i should reschedule. so i went. i got the job. and funnily enough, got my boss fired about a year later for sexual harrassment. who would have thought! but that's a funny story all on it's own!

it's amazing how one thing can change the world. i know it changed mine.

my life over the past five years...who would have known...

from amway to apple,
k :o)