Today, We are all New Yorkers!

I woke up early, about 6:00 a.m. in an Orlando hotel room that day, and took the elevator up to the suite of the new CEO I had been supporting for our first media interview of the day.

The company was a brand new client, and the CEO was anxious to start telling his story to the press. The first press meeting went great. I had a break at 7:30 a.m. and I decided to head back to my room to check email, grab a cup of coffee and check voicemail.

When I went to my room, I checked my messages and there it was… a voicemail from the recruiter I had been working with for several months. I had been interviewing for a new job, one that would bring me back to the Northeast and closer to family. I had been with my existing firm for nearly six years and had moved around the country with them - starting in Boston; moving to Houston; moving to San Francisco and finally settling in Atlanta.

“Erin, we are so excited to offer you a new position with our firm in New York City; please give me a call as soon as you can to talk about when you can start and when you can relocate from Georgia to New York,” said the recruiter.

Yes! I got it; I got it! I got an offer, a new job! I am moving to New York City.

I sat down on the bed. I turned on the “Today Show.”  I checked my email. I called my mom. It was 8:30 a.m. I had an hour until my next media interview.

“A plane went off course and hit one of the World Trade Towers,” said Katie Couric. What sort of an idiot pilot hits a building? Were they drunk? Did the pilot have a seizure? What went wrong?

Oh my God, it wasn't an accident. Oh my God, there goes another plane.  I called my mom. I called my client. I called my new CEO. I called my Dad, who traveled often out of Boston’s Logan Airport to Los Angeles. I called my sister, my brothers. I called my friends. I called everyone I could think of from New York and from Boston. I can’t get a hold of anyone. Oh my God, please help those people.

I emailed the recruiter. I accept your offer. But, the world has changed since you left me a voicemail at 7:30 a.m.

Fast forward to December 1, 2001. I landed at LaGuardia Airport in Queens. I jumped in a cab; I drove to my new apartment on 21^st Street between 6^th and 7^th Avenue; I started my new job.  The world was different. I was different. I was now a New Yorker.

Twelve years later. I am a New England girl at heart, but I am still a New Yorker. Today around the world, on 9/11, twelve years later, we are all New Yorkers.  God Bless my City and this day. I will never forget it. You will never forget it. I wish we could forget it.