Where Were You?

It's a question that needs no context today.  You know what everyone is asking - where were you 10 years ago.  I feel like our parents had many historical events that they could tell you where they were or what they were doing when they happened.  In my life, it's this event - I will never forget where I was.

It was my junior year of college at Samford.  We had just started the fall semester - I guess this was probably the 2nd or 3rd week of classes.  I still had a pretty big meal plan in the cafeteria that year and I was determined to start using many of those meals.  That morning - I had an 8:00 French class.  My routine had been to run through the cafeteria and make a bagel that I could carry with me to class.  

Coming from West Campus - you had to walk through the lobby where people would stop by to get information.  There was a booth there and usually at that time of the day someone was working.  There was a lady sitting behind the glass and she didn't even look up as I walked past.  She was watching TV.  As I walked past the glass of her little box - I was curious to see what had her attention and that was when I saw the smoke coming from the first tower.  I was a little confused so I stopped to ask her what was going on - and she told me that a plane had hit the 1st tower of the WTC and they thought it was an accident.  I stood there for a minute, but being the rule follower - I didn't want to be late to class so I pulled myself away and headed to French.

We got to class and turned the TV on the watch the coverage, sometime in my commute to class the 2nd plane had hit.  As we watched the coverage in silence we listened as the reporters began to realize these weren't accidents and that we really were under attack.  Well, soon after that, our French professor came into the room and turned the TV off to put in a video.  There was not a happy person in that class, but I don't think the professors really understood what was happening - none of us did.  Class would go on as usual.  We sat in a dark room with no windows, watching some meaningless French video for 45 minutes - no one really paying attention - all of us wondering what was happening to our country.

After that class I had to head straight to a journalism class which was across campus.  One of my most vivid memories that day was walking across campus watching everyone trying to use their cell phones to call their loved ones.  It didn't matter where you lived, where you were from, where your loved ones were - you wanted to hear their voices that day - you wanted to know for sure that they were ok.  It was almost like we were all walking in a trance just trying to figure out what was going on.  When we all got into journalism class we thought for sure that they would cancel classes and let us go, but our professor came in and turned the TV off and tried to have class.  When he realized that no one was paying attention and that he couldn't really think to teach - he turned the TV on and let us watch the rest of that class.  It was about mid-day after that class that the university finally cancelled classes.

I went back to the sorority house - to my room and turned on the TV.  I think I watched the coverage the rest of the day - still wondering how this could happen in our country.  The entire campus was buzzing by then, people were beginning to talk through it - trying to make sense of it.  There was one girl in our classes whose father worked at the Pentagon and she had yet to make contact with him.  It wasn't until later that evening that she learned that he was safe and OK, but it was a very long day for her. 

I remember for the next few days there was talk on campus about other major cities being targeted and the possibility of Birmingham being hit.  We used to call our campus the Samford bubble - they may still call it that.  But that day, it was as if someone had taken a pin and burst a big wide hole in the bubble and I didn't even feel safe there.  It was days and weeks of not knowing, not understanding and wondering if we were really safe anywhere.  Thinking about that fear - the memory is still as fresh as the day it happened.

We will never forget.