There are moments in everyone's lives that they remember exactly where they were the moment "it" happened. Every generation is different but we all have them.
I was sitting in my 1st grade class right before lunch and everyone was anxiously awaiting the Challenger and the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe, to take flight. I could see how excited my teacher was as she proudly waited and watched as one of her "own" headed into space. As the moment approached, I remember that was all anyone could talk about and some of the teachers had even decorated their classrooms with planets and astronauts in preparation for the big event!
But then "it" happened. Without any understanding of what just took place we witnessed the way her face looked, the tears that filled her eyes and the gasp that escaped her mouth just eight short seconds after it took off. That moment is forever etched in my mind. It was live and none of us were prepared, especially her, to watch it explode with all the world watching. I was 6, I was involved, I was scared.
In college, I had just finished my Media Ethics class when I learned about the attack on New York City. Otherwise know as 9/11. I was a senior and it was about 9:30am in the morning. Standing in the cafeteria with my friends, we watched it all unfold and just when it couldn't get any worse, we witnessed both towers collapse into a heap of rubble. Lives were lost, families were destroyed and we began to question our very mortality and safety. We never prepare for moments like these, at least I never thought I had to.
We ask questions like, "How could this happen and WHY?" There always has to be someone to blame and always a feeling of where do we go from here? And for many years those very same questions haunted me when I'd think back to the day "it" happened to me.
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