It made me stronger

By Francie Williamson: I was not even a year out of college and working at the newspaper in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The night before we'd had a going away party for a colleague. I remember the Tuesday paper which I worked on Monday night was incredibly boring... hardly anything was going on the 10th of September, 2001.

The next morning around 8 ET I was awoken by a telemarketer. I hadn't gotten to bed until after 2 a.m., so I was cranky and ticked off. The phone rang again about 10 a.m. It was one of my best friends in Fredericksburg, Va. At first I thought she said the Eiffel Tower was on fire and I was like, when did you go to Paris? Then she told me to turn on the TV.

I remember the shock I felt seeing the World Trade Center on fire. I remembered visiting the buildings 10 years earlier. We'd been wary after getting stuck in the elevator at the Empire State Building and weren't too excited about going up another skyscraper. I have a video of me at age 11 filming from the observation deck at the WTC. I cherish that clip now.

After crying at the images of all the people trapped in the building, I got dressed and headed into work. Driving in, listening to NPR, I looked around at people in the cars, and wondered, do they know? The sky was bright blue and empty.

The extra edition was nearly done when I got to work, and I spent the rest of the night helping put out the paper. I'll never forget the photos of people jumping out of the buildings. I stayed up all night watching TV coverage and had panic attacks for weeks afterward, even though I was thousands of miles away.

When I was finally better, I went down to the beach. I saw a butterfly and remembered that after all the sorrow, there was still beauty and goodness in the world. I vowed that day to change my life, live more in the moment, and do what I wanted with my life.

My life changed forever on 9/11. I believe it made me a stronger person.

Editor's note: Francie is now an assistant business and news editor with The Gazette.