The Victors

I was barely 23 years old, still working at my first job out of college (consulting), and staffed at what was Bank One in Columbus, OH. When I heard a plane flew into the WTC, I didn't immediately think of terrorists. That was the world we lived in then. We gathered in the cafeteria to watch on TV and then a group of us left to go to our corporate apartments to watch. It boggled my mind that some people were so hard core that they wanted to go back to work after an hour, completely oblivious to what was happening.

It never crossed my mind that I might know somebody in the buildings, but I did. Meredith Whalen, UM BBA 2000, in my section. We weren't close, and she wasn't somebody I would expect to keep in touch with after college. But I knew her - many classes, and worked on our senior year corporate strategy group project together. She was super smart and very driven. Got a very competitive Goldman Sachs internship in London over the summer and then a job at Fred Alger. She was on the 93rd floor of the North Tower, the bottom floor of the impact zone.

It is hard to comprehend that when I see a video of that first plane crashing, I'm watching her die. And that is the best case scenario for her - something very quick. There are no calls from Fred Alger on the 93rd floor. Barely anything left of her to identify, when they finally did. Same age as me, grew up in a neighboring city, same college, major - just makes it much easier for me to see a path to where I was in that building on that day.

So instead of Meredith being one of the faces that drift into my past, I think of her more often that anybody from college not currently in my life. I took my son to her marker at the memorial when we visited NYC. I'll tell my daughter about her for the first time tonight, because she is old enough.

I don't have any confidence in what happens to us when we die, but stories like Meredith make it hard for me to relate to the deeply religious - God's plan type people. Her dad died from cancer when she was young. She died on 9.11. He Mom has subsequently died from Alzheimer's. Her sister is all that is left. God's plan?

I still watch memorial videos this time of year. I think it is important to not forget. However, the state of this country makes them even harder to watch. The country was united. We now have a piece of shit con man as POTUS, and a cult living in an alternate reality blindly following him. Trump and those that follow him are a disgrace to the memory of anybody that died that day.

I'm glad I have a ton of football to watch this weekend.