[bucklind17]

I was a sophomore in college. I had an 8:00am class that day, followed by a 9:30am class. I remember the professor of my 9:30 class walking into the room and announcing that the plane had flown into the building and that the first tower had collapsed. We all just stared at him. The guy was kind of a jerk and it was a media communications class, so for all we knew, he was testing us to see our reaction and was then going to ask us how such a tragedy would be handled in the media. Obviously, he wasn't. He didn't keep us. My class was in the communications building and someone had put a television in the hallway and most of my class, and a number of others, were huddled around it, watching the second tower until it collapsed. After that, I went back to my apartment, remembering on my way that one of my housemate's father worked in the WTC. She was the only other person home when I got there. Her dad wasn't there that day, he was in his company's other office by chance.

I went to school at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Right on the Hudson River. The planes flew right over my school on their way to the city. Being semi-upstate, we had a lot of kids from Long Island, New Jersey and the city at our school, many of whom lost friends and relatives. I still remember the mood of the school immediately following the attacks. I remember the memorial service in the chapel being so crowded that the majority of students who attended were out on the lawn in front, listening through loudspeakers. I remember going to the city again for the first time, two weeks later and seeing the musical 42nd Street and the large American flag they incorporated into the finale and how important it was to me to be in the city so soon.

I didn't grow up in New York City but I frequented it throughout my childhood and college. I've lived here for the past five years. It's very much a part of who I am and I feel proud to be a New Yorker every day. Eight years have passed, but it never is forgotten.