Where Were You?

Five years ago, where were you? What were you doing when you found out the news? Were you, like me, asleep? On the West Coast, it was still early enough to be asleep without feeling guilty. And when one of the more hyper and hysterical girls ran down the hallway banging on doors, telling people that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, it meant nothing to me, and I went back to sleep.

Well, first I told my roommate, who had asked me groggily, "Who was that, and what did she want at this hour?"

We both didn't understand what the news meant at 7:44 in the morning and didn't consider turning on our television to find out. We just went back to sleep. The whole world was changing, and we slept through it.

But then, not ten minutes later, my mom called. All she said was, "Turn on the news."

And then we knew, and nothing was the same after that. After that, people were united in a way they had never been before. After that, my inordinate fascination with New York continued to grow. After that, the whole atmosphere on campus changed. And then it changed back.

How soon we forgot.

How long we will remember.