Where were you when.......

It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since September 11, 2001.  For me, as I sit here today, the past ten years have gone by quickly.  I wonder if it's gone by quickly or painfully slow for people who were directly involved that day. 
I was 24 years old, and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing.  I was teaching Civics and Economics at James Kenan High School.  I'll never forget it because of an ironic thing that happened.  I had been teaching presidential succession the day before.  As we went through the list of people who would become president if something happened to the sitting president, a student named Lamont asked, "What if they all died at the same time?"  I asked him what he meant.  He said, "You know, like in Independence Day.  What if someone just blew up the building where they all are?".  I kind of laughed and said, "Things like that don't really happen."  I didn't think about it again for the rest of the day.
The next day, Lamont came in late.  He had had a dentist appointment.  The period was ending, and things were wrapping up.  He sat down and said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.  Really, I said, Must be a small plane that got off course.  He said, "I don't think so, another plane hit after the first one. I thought you said things like that don't happen." 
When class ended, I walked across to the Media Center, where lots of people were gathered around the tv.  It was a surreal thing.  They kept replaying the first plane hitting, and I kept thinking that it just didn't look real.  I can't really describe what I was feeling or thinking.  Just odd.  And I had to go back to my class to teach my next class.
They sent us all home immediately after school that day.  I went home to the little tin-can mobile home I was renting in Warsaw.  TV was non-stop coverage of what had happened.  I watched, felt strange but not really overly emotional.  It wasn't until the next day that I was watching the news that I actually cried.  In the days after, people had put pictures of their missing loved ones on fliers, and they were interviewing a woman who was holding up a picture of her brother and begging anyone who may have seen him to get in touch with her.  That struck me, because in the instant, I imagined myself in her position, not knowing where my brother was.  And I cried and cried right there by myself in the living room of that little trailer. My cat Alex jumped on the couch and snuggled up beside my leg. 
Since then, I made my first trip to New York City and remembered feeling oddly afraid when I saw the officers around LaGuardia airport with their assault rifles.  I've watched the start of wars that sent young men and women thousands of miles away.  There have been other terror attacks around the world in places like Spain and England, and failed attempts here at home.  And  the word "terrorism" is something that lingers in the back of my mind, whereas before it was something I never thought about.
Ten years later, I'm amazed at how different things are.  The world is different, our country is different, and I am different.   Everyone has a few of those "I knew exactly where I was" events in their lifetimes.  I hope  there aren't anymore like this one in my lifetime.