Do you remember where you were when the World changed? By change I do mean the atrocious attack on the World Trade Center in New York on the 9th September, or 9/11 as it is widely referred as. In an unprecedented attack on US soil, Osama Bin Laden changed the lives of all those lost that day but how the World looked upon the heroism of the New Yorkers and of course how we felt about Osama and the radical Muslims. By taking the lives of the thousands of innocent lives that day, the radical leader made us stronger, more alert to terror possibilities and altered the way we moved from A to B.

I was at my desk at 1:46 (8:46am in the US) on 9/11 and I remember switching over channels on the TV, bored with what was on BBC1 and I came across CNN’s coverage. I remember seeing the smoking images of World Trade Center 1, American Airlines flight 11 had struck moments before I changed channels. At the time I thought it was a trailer for a new Bruce Willis film until it dawned on me what had happened. No one knew that it was a terror attack until the second plane United Airlines 175 crashed into World Trace Center 2 some 16 minutes later. It then struck me the gravity of the situation.

Rushing out of my office to tell my colleagues, we turned on all the TV’s in the main office and stood still, unable to comprehend the situation, unsure at who to call and what to do next. Normality took a back seat, work was forgotten as an eerie silence hit the office. No one could talk, ringing phones went unanswered for the first five minutes as we all collected our thoughts. It was a mixture of sadness and anger, who could have done this? Not since Diana was killed in Paris in 1997 was the World so united in mourning.

We finished work early that day, there really was no point in continuing. There seemed no point in working, doing such trivial things when across the Atlantic thousands upon thousands had lost their lives in the matter of 16 minutes. I left work early and rushed home to be with the family. The World had been put on alert, nothing was safe, nothing and no one. Catching a train the the UK had gone from a normal every day occurrence to a major operation, police were everywhere and everyone stood taking note.

When we heard that Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were responsible for the attacks, people started blaming Muslims, innocent Muslims most of who were joined in grief at the senseless attacks. I’ll never forget that day and how it changed not only my life but those around me. It has heralded the start of more terror attacks around the world and we will always live with the possibility that terror is just around the corner. Five years on, it seems that the lessons learned haven’t been enough.