“We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down.”
―
A Tribute to The Victims & Heroes Who Lost Their Lives on September 11, 2001
The story about "John" comes up every 9/11 anniversary and it still haunts me today and makes me wonder what happened and where is he.
About 12 years ago I wrote this story, which was based on real life, about what I remember on the day the World Trade Center came down and the events before and after it. I was really honored when it was published on Yahoo in their Yahoo contributors section about 9/11.
People like us who are in Second Life are somewhat geeks of technology and before Second Life even happened I was part of this world.
The story about John started when around 2000 a community of people played on the platform Gamespy, I was part of Starfleet Command a very popular game based on Startrek. People who played this game formed a fleet and I happened to be a fleet commander. Being one of the girls who played this game was kind of a rarity because most guys did not want to have the fleet commander be a girl and be told what to do. We met online daily just like you did here in Second Life conducted meetings and then flew our battles against other fleets. Nobody knew each other's names in real life. We revealed little about each other and only a few details, maybe where we lived or an email address to get updates for fleet meetings.
One night John revealed to us how happy and excited he was to get a job at the World Trade Center. He worked in finance and this was his dream job that finally came true. He would tell us how beautiful the view from up there was and how cool it would be to maybe one day have a reunion of all of us meet at the World Trade Center Windows of the World. You could tell how much he wanted that and we all thought how very cool this would be if we all could meet there.
Then it happened, 9/11 and suddenly the World Trade Center was gone. That night we met in our group on GameSpy and talked about the horrors and shock we all experienced. John wasn't there. We figured since he lived there he may not have power or internet services to give him a day or two. One of the guys who lived in New Jersey across from Manhattan would tell us how he could see the smoke go on for days. We heard nothing from John.
It deeply hurt many of us, because we never knew to this day what happened to John. All we knew was he worked there and now he was gone. All I hope for if he did perish is that he is fighting for the Federation along with Mr. Spock and the others. Live long and Prosper, John!!!
John would absolutely love Second Life where he could explore and fly into space.
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