It is said that the time it takes to recover from a traumatic event is about six months.

The events, I am told, are in the category of divorce, losing a job, or some other bump in the road of life that all people go over at some point in their journeys.

There is one bump that has carved its way into our paths, however, that still jars us, shakes us and saddens us when we think of it.  On September 11 at 8:46 a.m., the landscape of our lives was forever changed.

When the first plane slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, we still did not know the magnitude of pain and suffering that we would all endure in one way or the other.

I knew some of the 2,830 victims who perished that day, but only on a professional basis. 

I did not have to go through the agony of watching the coffin of a close friend or loved one lowered into the ground amid the chorus of crying and sad music. I didn’t have to get on a long line to fight for benefits or look for a new job.  I didn’t have to look at an empty room, bed or pair of shoes everyday and ask myself why the person who occupied that space would never do so again.

All I lost that day was my own concept of how life should be or was at the time.  But over the next few weeks I looked at the images over and over again. 

I saw the eyes and heard the words of people who did lose all of those things.  Like so many of us who weren’t directly affected by loss, the knowing that such evil could cause such a crease in our own humanity was devastating to me. 

In the weeks after Sept. 11 I had nightmares, a fear of flying and bouts of anger directed mistakenly towards Arab Americans.  That was part of the crime committed.   Since many of us did not have these things happen to us before that day, some of us endured those ailments afterwards.

That is the nature of terrorism, as we know. It is designed to affect the behavior of those who survive so they may not only change their way of living but also their way of thinking.

Six months later, most of us have gotten back to a normal routine, or as close to normal as possible.  We have made adjustments to the way we live.  We stand on long lines to get on planes, we jam into trains to get to work and we look around a little more. Some people even say hello more now, if not to be friendly, at least to be more aware of who is in their immediate area in situations where their own personal security might be at stake.

In the big picture, six months is in no way enough time to put the events of Sept. 11 behind us. A war still rages to attempt to bring those who were behind this atrocity to justice.  Some of those who will come home as further casualties will be people we know and love, while those still untouched from a personal standpoint are still exposed to the trauma. There is the possibility of further violence against our nation in the form of devastating chemical, biological, or - God forbid - nuclear strikes.

But in this short time we have had a chance to take stock not just in our own lives but in the lives of others.

We now pay just a little more attention, for better or for worse, to what is going on around us. I am sure that those of you who didn’t know where Afghanistan was before 9/11 have an idea where it is now.  If you didn’t know anything about Islam before, you know more about it now - at least that people who really follow it believe in peace, not war.

I look at my leg as an example of healing. A year and a half ago, I tore it up.  I can run now, but it still reminds me that there is more healing, strengthening, and building left to do before I’ll be 100 percent better.

It will never be the same as it was.  We are the same.  Back to a routine, cautious of further injury, and not the way we were. 

With that is the hope of better days still to come, some even free from the pain we know to well now.

— Gary Anthony Ramsay is a weekend anchor
and journalist on the all-news
cable station NY1 and along-time resident of Queens.