[Schaumburger]

I'm interested in how 9/1/2001 changed the lives (in both small and large ways) of those who post on TOTV.

The morning of 9/11 I was just getting ready to leave for work when the first plane hit the North Tower. I watched on television for a few minutes, then I had to leave for work. I have a short drive to work. Just before getting to my office I heard on the radio that a second plane had hit the South Tower. When I got to my office, very few people were actually working. They were gathered around the television set in our conference room or listening to the radio at their desks. The rest of the day passed in kind of a fog. By 10:00 a.m. most offices downtown Chicago had let their employees go home for the day. Being out in the suburbs we weren't so worried about being attacked.

After several months of reflecting on the events of 9/11/2001 and how short life is and how things can change in the matter of minutes, I quit my second job, and I got involved in tutoring one night a week during the school year in an English as a Second Language program for adults in the northwest suburbs. I start my 9th year of tutoring next week, and tutoring these students has given me a greater appreciation of how lucky I am to have been born and raised in the United States.