Where were you? What were you doing?

I remember waking up to my clock-radio alarm in my dorm room. At first I didn't really pay attention to the DJs because I was half asleep but then I heard "the plane just crashed right into the side of the building." I sat up and moved in closer to the radio. They talked about how reports were just coming in about how a commercial plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I quickly got ready to go to class so that I could go downstairs to the lobby of the dorm since we didn't have a TV. I came into the lobby and people are frozen staring at a picture on the screen of a plane flying into one of the towers. Then video of the second plane into the second tower. Everyone was so confused. People were frantic on their cell phones calling family members to get more information. I watched as long as I could to gather information before I had to leave to go to class. As I passed a university maintenance vehicle parked by the sidewalk next to the building I was going to enter I stopped with others to listen to the radio and see if there were any new developments since I had left the dorm. I entered the lecture hall of my freshman chemistry class. There were a few students who didn't know about what had happened and those of us who did tried to explain what we ourselves still didn't really believe had occurred. Our professor came in a few minutes later to tell us that one of the towers had collapsed. He said class was cancelled but we all lingered and shared stories of what we had heard and seen so far.

I remember growing up and my Grandfather telling me about how everyone from his generation could tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor. I would tell him and myself, "I can't imagine what that must have been like" when he would tell me the stories. That morning, as I woke up in my dorm room, all of a sudden, I think I understood.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well of ill, whta we shall pay ANY price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose ANY foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.

-J.F.K.