I was working in New York City and living in New Jersey. I was in my office at 130 Liberty Street, and sent my parents an email at 8:44 a.m., saying all was well. My coworkers and I ran down the stairs of our building to the street, 20 floors. Security then asked us to go back up to the 20th floor, before telling us again to evacuate. Everyone on our floor was trying desperately to call their spouses, kids, and friends. We were so close to the North Tower that all we could see was debris raining down on the farmers’ market at the base of the Towers. A friend of mine was very frightened, and I volunteered to escort her away from the Towers. We made our way to the Lower East Side just before the Towers fell, and we eventually made our way back to New Jersey. To say it impacted my life is an understatement. It is because of 9/11 that I went back to school to pursue a career in public service, and it is the reason I live in a very rural area now in Vermont; I'm not scared of cities, it is just that I appreciate and hear quiet in a way I never thought possible. I spent the past 20 years in psychological counseling, and I still don't sleep the night through. But it is much better now. Living in rural Vermont, I feel like my senses have the time to absorb what I'm hearing, smelling, and seeing. It is refreshing and very present to live that way. The physical labor I do on my property has been good for the mind. The physical exertion has a way of settling my anxiety. I have built a life here with very little free time, and almost no boredom. Vermont's rugged terrain and challenging climate force an interface with nature that has been very good for me - personally and professionally. 9/11 is everyone's story; I realized that only recently. I don't own it just because I was there and narrowly escaped. Nobody really has the words to describe what happened, to adequately describe the magnitude of the trauma. So people have to make their own peace with it, whether you lost a loved one, or knew someone there, or were somewhere far away with no ties at all to NYC. For me, every 9/11 I think of how grateful I am to still be here, because if I was a few hundred feet from where I was, I wouldn't be here today.

Rich Grogan