7 Years Ago Today....

I was told by my parents that 9/11 would be our equivelent to where were you when JFK was shot....both events that you will NEVER forget. So where was I? I was a sophomore in college. I got up for my 9:30 ethics class-and turned on the tv-to see the 1st tower on fire. Literally about 20 seconds later I watched as the 2nd plane hit. I thought I was watching a replay, when in reality I was watching the 2nd tower on fire. I remember thinking-oh my gosh, those poor people-and praying so hard that as many of them as possible would make it out alive. Not knowing the extent of what was going on in the world I went to class. Only to hear more and more that this was the start of war. We had been attacked by terrorists. I was angry, scared, and sad. My ethics professor brought in a tv and felt that it was an appropriate time to try and have us focus on learning about ethics when something that catastrophic had just happened. He said if we wanted to go back to our dorms we could-or we could watch the coverage there in class.
Most of us didn't move-we just sat glued to the tv. Not long after-the first tower fell. Tears streamed down my face. Those poor people. So many of them you knew couldn't have made it out alive. Then, a short while later-I went back to my room-and again was glued to the tv. I didn't move for hours. I called my mom-just to tell her I loved her, then I called my dad and did the same thing. I was so scared. I was 350 miles away from my parents-but felt as if I was a world a part. My mom was at work-and she hadn't seen any of the coverage yet. She was to scared to look at things on the internet for fear of what she would see.
My boyfriend at the time called me-him also being 350 miles away just called to see how I was doing. Knowing me-he knew I would be scared and upset. We talked for awhile...said our goodbyes....but I remember thinking that I wanted nothing more than to be at home with him and my parents.
I watched as the 2nd tower fell and I remember the news breaking in to tell us the pentagon had been hit and then the other plane that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Is this it? Is the world ending? What is going on!!! I was so scared! Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. An email was sent out to the students saying that we needed to stay in our dorms and pray. I did. I don't know how many rosary's I said that day-but prayer was comforting.
In the days following I remember sitting at my desk in my dorm looking out the window to see fighter jets flying pretty low. I forget that this state has missle tanks. Great! What's next! They flew over head for months. I will never forget seeing the airforce emblem on the tails and thinking of my dad. He retired as a sargeant just a few short years before-and 1 week before 9/11 he received a letter in the mail asking if he would come out of retirement and work on base in to train. He had decided he would. He called the Lieutenant-couldn't get through-and never heard back. THANK GOD! I don't know what I would have done if my dad would have gone to war. He was activated for the first Gulf War-I couldn't comprhend him going again.
Now 7 years later I sit in my office...right across the hall from where I watched the tv of the towers falling. It's eary. 7 years have passed, but honestly-I remember the details of it all as if it were yesterday.