I was in college and worked a later shift at the time but woke up early that morning (early for me at least) I started my pot of coffee, loaded up EQ to put in a few hours on my monk before heading off to work and flipped on the tv.
It was right in between the first and second tower being hit. It was very surreal, it was on EVERY channel. I honestly thought another European city had been bombed and was a bit upset that normal TV wasn't on. Didn't think much of it though and wasn't paying close attention...then either live or delayed or replay, I can't remember, the second plane hit and the reporter mentioned where they were reporting from. I was literally turning around in my chair to get up to get a cup of coffee when it happened.
Everything started clicking for what it was very rapidly. As a sophomore in college, I grew up A LOT that day. The world was no longer fun and games and "nothing will ever happen to me, fuck I hate fucking work." Here I was watching what could have been world war 3 starting with my very eyes. Not in a history book, not in a Tom Hanks movie but real life. I'm not afraid to say it scared the hell out of me.
I was glued to the television till my alarm went off to get ready for work, basically waiting for the the attacks to continue to roll in and for my city to get called out as a target...or worse just simply not existing anymore because a bomb went off or something. Got to work and everyone that had to remain on staff was in the breakroom glued to the news. More than 90% of the company was let out for the day. It was a call center and all our phones were shut down so there was nothing to do. I remember the chaos was so intense for the next few days that everyone was paid a day late. Direct deposit was offline and someone from corporate had to drive the paper paychecks across the country because mail and flights were ground to a halt.
EQ wise, my monk died. I left auto-attack on when I turned around to the tv and never made it back to the computer screen.
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