Each September 11th, I force myself to pick away the scabs that formed on my psyche on 9/11/01. It's painful. It hurts. But reliving the emotions and experiences I felt on that day is the best reminder of why we must fight and win against the people who hate us simply because we love freedom. Thank God I did not lose anyone I know that day. And though I was scheduled to be on a plane to Chicago on 9/12/01, I was lucky not to have decided to start on my journey a day earlier.

The thing I find that helps me best connect back is putting myself in the shoes of the people who found themselves in the Twin Towers that day. Or in the Pentagon. Or on one of the hijacked airplanes. What did they experience? What must have gone through their minds as they realized what was happening to them? What would I have done if it were me? These are impossible questions to answer, yet through this storytelling in my head, I am able to change the abstract numbers 9/11 into its meaning on a human level.

This is why, when I found out about the 2,996 Project last week from Carol of planningblog, I knew I had to participate. The project consists of tributes to honor each victim of 9/11, each created by a different blogger and posted on September 11th. I was randomly assigned to write about Amy O'Doherty, who lost her life in the World Trade Center. When I first clicked on the site to get more information about her, I gasped because in the picture above, she looks almost like me. Another "there but for the grace of God go I" moment.

I had to do a lot of searching to find information about Amy, but here is her story:

Amy O'Doherty grew up in Pelham, NY, and attended St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, graduating in 2000. A professor there who had her in four classes said of her:

She was a true pleasure to have in class: always doing every homework, carrying class discussions (especially in Money and Banking!), and such a hard worker.

After graduating, she moved to New York City into her first apartment and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, an international securities firm with offices on floors 101-105 of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
A profile in the New York Times read:

To Amy O'Doherty, in her first job and apartment, Manhattan's streets emanated excitement and its air, promise — of new friends and smart conversations over steaks at Morton's, and of unlimited success. Of what Geraldine Davie, her mother, called "the largeness of life."

Ms. O'Doherty, 23, loved her job as a broker's assistant at Cantor Fitzgerald. "Financing, trading, bonds," said Liz Gallello, a childhood friend. "She wanted to take it – the career, the city woman lifestyle – as far as far it could go."

She was delighted with her five-story walk-up — so small, said Ms. Davie, that "Lilliputians should live in it." She filled it with dozens of framed photos of friends from Pelham, N.Y., where she grew up, and from camp, college and work.

"She was soaking up that great New York style," said Ms. Davie. "Picking up that New York language. She didn't know it but she was living her bliss."

On September 11, 2001, Amy managed to place a call to her mother in the moments after the crash. But she and a thousand more of her colleagues were never heard from again.