I distinctly remember it being an extremely clear Tuesday, as I was walking to class that morning. Before morning class in Pamplin, we all saw the news of the first plane hitting the WTC and figured it must have been some terrible accident. By the time class finished, the second plane hit and we knew it was certainly a terrorist attack.

When I got back to my apartment around lunchtime on that day, my roommate was extremely nervous because his aunt and uncle both worked at the WTC. Only later did we find out they both survived, by two strokes of luck. His aunt had been in one of the upper WTC floors earlier that morning, but had left for a meeting across town before the plane hit. His uncle was running late that day, and never made it the WTC before the attacks, fortunately for him.