I was starting my last year of college. When I pulled into the campus lot for commuters, I heard the radio cut in with an announcement that a plane had hit the WTC (they interrupted a Metallica song–Hero of the Day as I recall), but they thought it was a small, private plane. By the time I got to my next class at 10:50, the WTC was gone, Osama Bin Laden was speculated to be the person behind it, and the world had changed.

Campus closed at noon, so I went home and turned on the television to CNN. I stayed there until 10:00 that night. It completely blew my mind. I didn’t get much sleep that night. I remember it seemed as if the entire world stopped. By 3AM, the fatigue and the events stopped keeping me awake.

I woke up the next day bitter at what had happened. I remember thinking that war was now upon us. I did not look forward to it. As a former Marine, I knew all to well what happens to too many young people in war.

With almost 9 years of hindsight, I now look back on that fateful day and I understand what America felt on December 7th, 1941. I wish I didn’t know…