Where were you on 9/11?

I always here people saying "I will never forget where I was on 9/11." That is generally the way it goes with things like this. My mother said she never forgot the moment she heard the JFK has been killed, and my grandfather said he would never forget Pearl Harbor. For my generation this is our defining event, and hopefully, will always remain so. What I was ruminating about today though was why do I, the person who remembers his first year in school about as well as his tenth, remember very little detail about that day? I remember where I was of course, but other than impressions and emotions I really remember very little detail. I remember that I found out in chapel when I was at Harding University. I say my friend Trey Laminack who sat next to me in chapel that year and a ran to catch up with him as we were leaving the dorms. But other than that its quite a haze. We walked into together and immediately I felt something was wrong, the aura of the place, for lack of a better word, was oppressive. I doubt I will ever again in my life feel what its like to be in a room with 4000 other people all of home have just received the most stunning news of their life. I know many of you on my facebook friends list can relate to this, most of you were in chapel that day as well. I do remember that Kimberly was not in chapel, she was running late for chapel and had caught the news coverage before she left and then couldn't make herself leave, so the seat to my right was vacant. But after that I remember nothing about that day until noon. I don't remember what Dr. Burk said that day after Trey and I, who were also late, figured out what was going on. I was in a daze I guess, and from looking at Trey so was he. The next thing I remember was going to Cone at noon, where I was supposed to meet some friends. I remember then that we had to explain it all to Drew Dasher who had just woken up because he had slept in. He hadn't heard any of it. I remember we tried to come up with words that were adequate but we just said, "go in there and turn on the news." I remember that was probably my most vivid memory of the day, watching someone else learn the news when I myself was no longer reeling from it. At no time before then or since then have I felt myself so small, so incapacitated, and so useless before an event. I didn't think there was a situation that could so completely make my brain shut down and panic. That was the situation, and although the feeling didn't last long, that was my honest reaction, and the feeling of that helplessness and shock comes back every time the anniversary rolls around. I can't help but wonder if that was the way I felt in Arkansas how much more terrible was it for those around ground zero.