Where were you?

I am sure this is going to be just one of the many blog posts about the 10 year anniversary of 9/11.  For some reason, this year, the anniversary of that awful day is hitting me harder than usual.  My heart hurts for those who had friends and loved ones killed in the attack.  I broke down when the wife of one of the heroes from flight 93, that crashed in Pennsylvania, described her last phone conversation with her husband as he said goodbye to her and their newborn baby.  It's just hitting closer to home this year as I think of how lucky I am that my family is safe and sound inside our home today.    

As I watch the coverage of the events from 9/11, I cannot believe it has been so long because it seems like only yesterday.  I am filled with sadness but at the same time I am also filled with anger.  Anger at the fact that someone can even think that killing people is the right thing to do.  I am also filled with pride in how our country came together to rise up from this tragedy.  No matter where anyone was that day, in New York or Alaska, every single American was affected by 9/11  and still are to this day.

I can remember exactly where I was on that day.  It was my sophomore year of college at UMBC.  I was in College Algebra and we had barely started class when someone burst into our room to announce we were under attack.  At first I thought it was just a joke-some kid who just wanted to be funny.  But as we turned the TV on in the classroom to see the second plane hitting the towers we soon realized that it was not a joke.  The entire campus was buzzing- people on their phones trying to reach family members, people crying because they knew someone who worked there, desperate to find out if they were ok.  I don't really remember exactly what I did after that.  I just remember sitting in what was then the student union and watching what was going on.  I didn't have a cell phone so I hopped in my car and drove home.  We have family that live in New York and once we found out everyone was ok we just watched and watched the coverage on TV.  It was unreal.  We were at war.  I can't remember if UMBC was closed that day-most likely, and I cannot remember really any other details such as what happened after that day.

I remember going to New York that Thanksgiving to visit my family in Westchester.  As we crossed the Tappanzee bridge and looked out at the NY skyline the gaping hole where we used to see the twin towers was heartbreaking.  I remember that Spring when Tommy and I went to New York city (we had been dating for a few months at that time), we went to ground zero.  Parts of it were still smoldering.  It was so surreal.

Today we remember the events of 9/11.  Where were you that day?