Seven years later...

September 11, 2001 was a very sad day. I wasn't there, I didn't know anyone who was killed, but it really hit me hard, and it still does.

I was up late, watching TV, when Sandra Sully came on with breaking a news - a plane had hit the World Trade Centre. The footage they showed was frighteningly graphic. You could hear the fear in Sully's voice.

What the hell was going on? Was America under attack?

Yeah... it definitely was.

Then the second plane hit. Then the reports came through about the Pentagon, and the plane that crashed outside Pennsylvania, reportedly on the way to the White House.

Thanks to the news coverage, I saw some things that will stay with me forever. People covered in blood and ash. People screaming and sobbing on the street. People jumping out of windows in the towers because they knew the fires would kill them. Falling to their death was a better fate than burning. I saw the first tower collapse on live TV.

It changed our lives for ever.

It made us scared. It made us suspicious. It made us not trust anyone or anything that is slightly different.

It's made the world a scary place to live.

Seven years later, I still can't watch/read/listen to stories about 9/11 without choking up.