Rachel Young

thursday, september 27, 2001

I had a blast this past weekend at my best friend’s wedding. I’ve got my pictures developed and scanned. I’m going to be sending the link to friends for viewing.

Being away from the city was a nice break. Despite the hit on the Pentagon, life in DC seemed normal enough and there were very few reminders of the tragedy from September 11th. In New York, however, it’s impossible to escape it from the closing of tunnels, to the cluster of American flags, to the collection of posters displaying missing loved ones, to the presence of policemen on every block, and to the obvious—the absence of the WTC.

But a little over two weeks have gone by now, and life is slowly but surely resuming back to some normalcy. Good or bad I have yet to determine. People were extremely civil and polite to one another for a few days following the incident. Now, many of them have put on their cold, stern faces again.

In the evening after work yesterday, I walked by an elderly white woman who was as thin as a rail and appeared to be homeless. She stood under a store awning, shivering in the cold (although it was probably in the upper 50s, lower 60s at the time) and kept saying to those passing by, “It’s so cold. All I need is a coat. It’s so cold. I just need one coat” over and over again.

I didn’t have a coat on, but I wanted to give her one. And then I started thinking about the coming winter and how harsh it’s going to be for the homeless in NY. It makes me sad just to think about it.

But despite all this—the tragic events, the stern faces, the chilly weather, the agonizing grimace on the face of the homeless, and the absence of my closest friends—I love this city. As I stood on a street corner waiting for the light to change yesterday afternoon, I looked up at the buildings against the backdrop of clear skies and thought to myself, “I can’t believe I’m here. I love this city.”

Already in two months here, I feel I’ve been challenged and changed. And this is just a taste of what’s to come. In the past two weeks alone, the world has become a different place, many lives have been changed, I’ve aged one year (along with three of my closest friends), I’ve landed a temp to perm job (indefinitely) that I want so badly I’m losing sleep over it, my best friend is now a Mrs., I made an enemy, I passed out from food coma three times (that’s how well I ate this past weekend), I received the strangest emails from the most random individuals, I wrote and recorded two songs, and I finally have some spending money in my bank account.

And so, this is life.

Ups and downs.

Twists and turns.

Expectations and surprises.

Decisions and consequences.

Friends and foes.

Wins and losses.

Disappointment and hope.

Good and bad.

Here and now.

rewind forward