As a 9/11  survivor, I’m often asked questions about my escape from the North Tower.

Most people, if they gathered enough courage to ask me, want to know the following:

(1) What did you feel when the plane hit the tower?

Answer: I felt the floor swaying in slow motion 5 times, and then the light dimmed for a few seconds, and then I heard a strange sound of falling sand – everything happened very fast.  But there’s no loud bang or terrifying scenes like that in the  movie. It was not till I left the building that I saw the scary big hole in the tower.

(2) How long did you take to run away?

Answer: Hmm… you don’t run down the stairs, especially with a crowd. I remembered walking down step-by-step,  there were no pushing or shouting, and occasionally we stopped for a few seconds while a fireman walked up with his heavy suit and equipments.  While I was in the stairway, I learned that there was a plane that hit the tower, someone with a cellphone was telling everyone what he heard from his wife.  But we did not know that it was a terrorist attack.

(3) Did you see the building falling?  You must have heard the South Tower falling?

Answer: No, I did not see the building falling.  I was smart enough to know that I need to get away as soon as I can — in fact I only stayed around for 10 mins once I got out the building and then I decided to start walking back home a hundred blocks away.   If there’s any noise, it was when we were  getting on the bridge to cross from North Tower to the World Financial center, I heard big bangs, and I thought that was the sound of the building debris.  But later, I was very sad to understand that the bangs were from the falling human bodies.

The above may be tough to read.  I understand people are not just curious, but they are gathering data to think if they can survive if they ever encounter similar attacks.  And I don’t believe that any advanced information technologies or intelligence technologies could have helped in understanding the human experience.

I remember 9/11 morning a beautiful morning as I walked out of the subway heading towards the North Tower.

We were attacked and we survived. We are stronger.

Many of you know that I am one of the survivors of September 11th, escaping the WTC North Tower when New York City was attacked.

But I never told you the amazing effort of our city’s recovery.

On August 26th 2004, just 2 weeks shy of the annual anniversary, NYPD called me. An officer told me that they have recovered my wallet lost on 9/11/2001. I was shocked to see my wallet two days later, all twisted and dirt-covered, neatly tugged in a plastic cover.

On the cover, there are 5 barcode stickers lined up carefully, and a business card of the Forensic Investigator. It just demonstrates the extensive investigations that our country undertook.

Today, I like to think that these digital barcodes will forever be part of my digital existence. In the past 7 years,  digital technology and data intelligence innovations have evolved rapidly. RFID technology and other man-machine interactions are made possible and more important each day.

I’m proud to be an American and thankful for the effort to recover us from the darkest day in our nation.