It’s funny how life moves in the blink of an eye. 5 years ago today I remember sitting in my pod in the Morris Digital Works newsroom in Augusta, GA. I sat their playful arguing with my friend RJ about what news program we were going to watch that morning. I preferred MSNBC, he normally preferred anything that did not get me talking about how cute Dan Abrahms was for an hour straight. We settled on watching ESPN Sportscenter.
It started out like every other typical working morning – way to early. Fighting over the remote, joking about with co-workers and working on updating sites. Until the director of new web development came rushing over asking us to change the channel. The news in the car was reporting something… It was then we did flip to MSNBC and watched live as the 2nd plane crashed into the world trade center in NYC. It was one of those surreal, I don’t believe this kind of thing is really happening moments. Everyone sat there stunned.
Not a minute before RJ and I had been watching highlights of the Broncos/Giants Monday Night Football match-up. Commenting about how they kept showing McCaffrey getting hammered, his leg snapping and the Bronco’s still were able to pull out a victory. Good win, but bad long-term loss for the team.
Then with a switch of a channel we were all sitting in shock, mouths gaping as we tried to take in what we were witnessing on TV. Shock didn’t last long as many of us were awoken to the sounds of barking orders of what to do next. How the heck are we going to report this to all the Morris Papers online? What do we need to be doing or reporting? Who should be doing what?
Hello…Rachel please snap to it, this is not a drill. I heard my direct boss rush in and start screaming this was big. Was this bigger then me telling the editor to hold the paper from printing after the 2000 election fiasco? Wake up, focus on what’s the angle. Call your friends in NYC and see if they are ok. Also ask if we can get a first hand account of what happening. So much concern, so much confusion, so much work to be done as thoughts kept rushing through my head.
For the next 36 straight hours I didn’t leave the office floor, gripped by the TV, the phone and the wire or other online accounts of what was happening. Sometimes crying for joy (people I knew were safe), sometimes crying for sorrow (hearing about friends who lost loved ones or good friends, people missing, etc.), but mainly focused on getting the news out to the papers we supported around the country.
It was a tragic event in American History that marked a turning point in a time that had been prosperous and somewhat peaceful within our borders. It’s understandable to me now how an invisible scar can penetrate so many lives all in matter of seconds. So now I sit at my new desk 5 years removed from that same moment. No longer working for at newspaper company, no longer living in Georgia and ponder how my life and many other lives changed course from a single moment and many moments that have followed since.
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