Pretty Dicey: On A Clear Day.

Yesterday, nine years ago, my life changed.
September 11, 2001.
It was this singular event in history that has led me to today.
This is something I have only told a few people, but I thought I might share it now.

I was nine years old and a 4th grader at Weston Elementary School.
It was a Tuesday.
I actually remember watching the Weather Channel that morning, before I left for the bus stop, and looked out the front window in my living room.
It was so beautiful and clear out.
Sunny, with puffy white clouds.
My favorite type of weather at the time.
It was a normal day.
So normal I don't remember anything of importance that happened that day at school.
After all, it was a just another Tuesday.
No, what I remember was coming home.

It was still sunny.
So after climbing of the bus, I skipped up our driveway.
Still completely ignorant of what had happened in New York that morning.
That is until my sister came running out the front door, yelling to me:
"Ally! Ally! Did you hear what happen!? The Twin Towers have been hit by airplanes!"
In disbelief I quickly went inside and to our t.v. in the living room.
It was on reruns of planes crashing into the towers.
Again and Again.
Always the second plane.
It didn't matter which station you were on.
That's all they showed.
Those planes crashing again and again.

Then it would switch over to the destruction of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia right outside of Washington D.C.
Then to the 4th plane, which crashed in a field somewhere near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Then it would show the towers collapsing.
Again and Again.
All those people.
Gone.

In the weeks few weeks after the attacks, we spent more time with family.
A lot of love and patriotism resulted from this.
But probably the thing that I remember the most was the food that resulted from it.
Comfort.
Food made my family happy.
It took away the bad thoughts and replaced them, if only for a few minutes, with great tasting food.

My thought and action process went as followed:
I want to make people happy.
Food seems to make people happy.
If I learn to cook, then I can make people happy.
And make myself happy, because cooking is a lot of fun.
I want to be a chef.

And here I am.
Nine years later.
What was a catastrophic event in the eyes of America and our Allies, gave me a passion and a dream that I am living out today.

Yesterday, on September 11, 2010 Stephanie and I took a train in Poughkeepsie, NY to Grand Central Terminal in New York City, NY.
It was a clear day.
Just like nine years ago.
But unlike nine years ago, the energy of the City was tangible.
They haven't forgotten.
Neither have I.