I was in my car. I don't remember where I was going, I never made it  there. For once the reception was clear in my car radio. Clear enough for me to hear the horrific scene that was being described on every station, channel, and program.  The news confused and alarmed me so I turned the car off and went back inside. Everything on the radio and T.V., the journalists and broadcaster's all struggling to remain calm while reporting the day's terrible events, made my hands shake. I held my breath, grasped my hands as if in prayer, and pressed them hard against my lips. When I blinked the tears started to fall. I was too disturbed to wipe them away, too disbelieving to tear my eyes from the screen. I let my hands drop to my belly, as if I needed to protect the baby inside. For the first time in my entire life I was truly afraid. For myself. For everyone. I couldn't watch anymore. I sobbed as if those people dying before my eyes were dear friends, family even. The images of people falling like leaves in the fall from the burning towers were there every single time I closed my eyes, they were embedded into my brain. I was afraid to sleep, to even try to sleep. They were there, the faceless specks in my dreamless darkness, jumping to escape into inevitable death. I cried until it hurt to breathe. It was more than a month before I was able to get through a day with out wondering who those people were, whose families were missing them, whose families were still waiting to find them... refusing to believe they would never be coming into the house again.  I was afraid for my little girl, and unborn son. Ever since that day, the day my generation lost it's innocence, I have realized just how important it is to love who you love. I can't understand what or why things like that happen. I only know that every minute of every day, people in numbers greater than the stars, are thinking of someone they never got to see again; never got to say or hear "I love you" again one last time, never got to touch again. I know I'll never be the same as I was before that day. I pray that people suffering such loss can have at least one day where they feel the way they felt before that fateful day...9/11/2001