Twenty-five years after 9/11, I still miss the America we were in the days after
By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
I was on my knees scrubbing stains out of the carpet as I watched it all unfold.
This was the fall of 2001. I was 21, three months out of college, working temp jobs while I looked for something permanent. My fiancé and I had been in our rental for a short time. The people before us had left stains ground into the carpet, and I was still working on getting them up.
My usual routine was to eat something, then clean. Just an ordinary Tuesday, and I was in the South, nowhere near New York.
I turned the TV on. Breaking news was already running when I sat down.
A plane had struck one of the World Trade Center towers. I picked up the phone and called my mom. I asked her if she was seeing what I was seeing. I don't re...