I was in my second year of college on 9/11, and the day started out like any other day.

I went downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast, and noticed an abnormally large group of students gathered around the big-screen TV in the lobby of my dorm. I didn’t think much of it until after I was sitting down eating breakfast. People all around seemed to be tense, talking hurriedly. I knew then that something was wrong.

I pushed my way through the group of people gathered around the TV, and saw the constantly-replaying image of the planes hitting the towers. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All I remember thinking was, “The world as we know it is about to change.”

I continued to watch TV in my room that day (most classes on campus had been cancelled), seeing the images of the plane crashes and the towers collapsing over and over again. I remember flipping through other channels, and with the exception of “kids” channels, everything was about this horrific, murderous, act.

The whole campus came to a standstill, and it was eerie – like a ghost town. People who didn’t even know each other suddenly stared riveted at the TV together.

I had a meeting on campus that night, and the leader asked us all to take a moment of silence in remeberence of all those who were lost that day. I remember thinking that “a moment of silence” would never seem like enough. All of those innocent victims deserved much, much more than just “a moment of silence”.