A Room of Strangers Unites

The sales departments of eight different magazines shared the same Chicago office where I worked in 2001.  In all, there were about 30 people who worked on the 11th floor, yet I only really knew a handful of those people.  That all changed on the morning of September 11^th.  All of us started that day as strangers standing in a crowded corner office while watching the gruesome images of the World Trade Center flicker on a 13-inch television.  When the first tower collapsed, there were gasps followed by tears, hugs, and then more tears.  By later that morning, bonds had formed in that room that would outlast all of our respective jobs with that company.  I’ll never forget what I saw the morning of 9/11, and I’ll never forget the support from all the strangers in that corner office who I now call friends.