Where were you

September 11 has arrived again.  It's literally been an entire lifetime ago that this awful day occurred.  As I was at the high school working today and there was a moment of silence at the time that the plane hit the first tower, it struck me that most of the students in that building were not born yet on that day, and the few that were certainly were only infants and have no first hand memory of the events.

For the rest of us though, it is so vivid.  I remember the evening before one of my best friends came over to watch the Monday night season opener of Monday Night Football.  It was the last night things were "normal" for awhile.  I, like many Americans, was at work that Tuesday morning.  My co-worker was on the phone with one of our salesmen who reported a plane had flown into the tower.  Of course at that point, we all thought it was some sort of horrible airline malfunction and tragedy.  The attack into the second tower changed that thought.  I remember walking past another co-worker's desk, and he told me his wife had just called about the plane into the Pentagon.  I vividly remember that moment, because my thought was, "My God.  Our country is under attack."  It had been 60 years since we had been attacked on our own home soil.  My friend who had come over to watch the game the night before came to see me at work, because that is just what we did that day.  We didn't understand really what was happening, but we all wanted to feel safe.  Some needed to reach out to friends, some needed to be alone.  We all needed to find comfort.

I will absolutely never forget that entire week.  Our country permanently changed that day.  I am so grateful my children don't have that kind of point of reference, but it will most likely come along at some point, and that makes me sad.  I know our country isn't perfect, but I'm still grateful to be an American.