A day we'll never forget. (FROM THE EDITOR).(Brief Article)

* I know that some of you were directly affected by the terrorist attacks on Tuesday, September 11th, and all of us have been rattled and immensely saddened by the events on that day. On page 186, you'll find "The Day I Thought I Was Going to Die," the gripping real-life account of a Cosmo reader who escaped the World Trade Center before it collapsed. I thought you might also be interested in hearing about what that day was like for some Cosmo staffers. Although our offices are in midtown Manhattan, many of us live downtown, not far from ground zero.

"I live seven blocks from the World Trade Center. On that Tuesday morning, I was on my way to the subway station when I noticed smoke and papers in the sky. I dismissed it until I heard the news from four guys from the New York Stock Exchange. I quickly called home to confirm that my daughter and husband were okay. Then I ran as fast as I could to my 9-year-old son's school. Heading down Seventh Avenue, I had an unobstructed view of the World Trade Center, where the towers were engulfed in smoke. I burst into tears. I was so relieved when I finally hugged my son."

-Ann Kwong, design director

"I was on Delancey Street when I saw the first plane scream across the sky and crash into the World Trade Center. I stood frozen, trying to understand what I had just seen. I live half a mile away from the chaos, and when the wind blows east, my apartment still fills with the acrid smoke. The trucks full of the crumbled towers often rumble past my apartment, and I can't help but think about the cargo they're hauling. All of us who work and live on this island have come to recognize firsthand the fragility of this life we've built for ourselves amid the skyscrapers."

-Liesa Goins, assistant editor

"My apartment is five minutes from the Trade Center, and on September 11, I was jogging around there before work. I watched as the planes crashed into the towers. It was right above me, right there. Along with a ...