September Eleventh

Here we are at the onset of 9/11 and I remember that day vividly in 2001.  I was in college and I was on my way to class when i heard the chatter on the news.  I was already late with my assignment and I was on the fence at the time on my major.  I was scrapping together sobriety from another night out.. and attempting to comprehend the news as it poured across all media outlets... it couldn't be true, right?

I ran to class holding my now late assignment and I stormed in wanting to hear the latest update.  We had the TV on news and I could see the 2 planes collapsing into the World Trade Towers.  Then I saw the Pentagon was hit.  I froze up and become clammy and anxious.

I stood up...  "My Dad is in the Pentagon, i gotta go"

I stormed back to my dorm and called my mom, dad, brother and seemingly everyone else i could imagine. Cell signals were overwhelmed.  I got a call from a teammate and he stopped by, worried because he was on campus and heard the news as well.  His father works in the DoD in D.C. and works often in the Pentagon.  We had no news of our family.

After a few hours on edge, we both heard from our families and we were not among the victims' families this fateful September day.

However, the implications of that day persist.  My buddy who stayed with me in despair ultimately became a Reservist and served two tours in Afghanistan. I am still close with him today and is about to Marry his high school sweetheart.

I was in industrial design via the college of architecture.  I wanted a career where I worked with people who had difficult missions to lead others and architecture was a very lonely but very rewarding profession.  I exhibited talent at developing worthy concepts, but had difficulty in the task of articulating designs, models and technical drawings.  I could stand my own, but had no passion for the skills i needed to be successful.

There I had an epiphany:  I wanted to sell cool shit, not make it.

At the time of that terrible day in 2001, i was faced with a terribly difficulty decision to alter my career at the age of 19.  I made a decision to enter the business side of the development of disruptive solutions.  I was more prepared to make that decision after experiencing the threat of losing something you value most.  It was that experience that encouraged me to make life decisions to better my happiness.

With great loss, it's hard to reconcile the triumphs, but we must if we are to celebrate the lives of those sacrificed to ensure we have opportunity to triumph.

My buddy Jesse.
Miss you lots brother.  RIP.