I remember exactly what I was doing on the morning of September 11, 2001.

I was in my room (#14) at the SAE house and I woke up around 8:30a for my class at 9:30a. I went through my usual routine of going to the bathroom, washing my hands, getting the taste of sleep out of my mouth, splashing water on my face, and then watching TV while eating Corn Flakes for breakfast.

Unlike any other day, however, the same thing was on every single channel. Coverage of one of the twin towers smoking. I watched as the second plane crashed into the other tower. It was surreal.

I called my parents to see if they heard from my cousin, who lived in Manhatten at the time. They already talked to his parents (my aunt and uncle) who said that he happened to be out of town and was safe.

I think I was the only person awake that was still in the house, so I started to wake up others so that I had some company to share the crazyness with.

I didn’t go to my class, but I did drive around in my (actually Obed’s) jeep to see what was going on around campus. Everything seemed normal, except it may have been just a bit quieter than usual.

I don’t remember if anyone was with me… I’m pretty sure someone was… or maybe I picked someone up from class as part of our normal switchoff. I can’t remember…

Anyway, I can’t believe it has already been five years since this event occured.

Fortunately, I didn’t know anybody that was directly affected by the attacks.

Unfortunately, this is my generation’s version of the Kennedy assasination question… “Do you remember what you were doing on 9/11?”

—cK