So on 9/11 I woke up turned my TV on and the first plane had already hit. Had the volume down so I didn't know what this was. It was on every channel so I turned it up. Then saw the 2nd plane hit within a few minutes. Shit blew my mind. My brother's stupid girlfriend was living with us at the time - I walked out and she was watching this in the living room. I was not understanding how heavy this was yet. So I started smoking bowls on my deck for the next hour. Called my dudes to see what was up, and said "let's go skate, cops won't fuck with us today!" , which in hindsight I regret a lot because I was just thinking about myself at the time (still did not realize how big this was yet, and have felt shitty about it ever since).
2001-2003 were really shitty for me personally not that this is a good "excuse ". My girlfriend at the time was a full blown heroin addict and my dad was at peak drug addiction at the same time. I also was fucked up during this. Anyway, my girl was in a halfway house at the time, but my dad came home and watched the news for hours shaking his head. I had about 4 bowl sessions this day, just kinda not knowing what to do or think. I recall my dad putting an American flag sticker on his truck the next day though.
Also, within 4 months of this, my dad was dead and the girl went to prison (within 2 days of each other). I kept fucking around for a year, but then never touched hard drugs again. I quit skating for most of 2003 due to depression/ drug withdrawal I guess. Then in 2004 just woke up one day and started skating again.