Where were you?

September 11, 2001. I was at work in Beaverton, Oregon that morning when I noticed that people were crowding into one of the small conference rooms that had a TV. Upon investigating, my boss told me what was happening. It was too horrible to comprehend right away.

At the same time, the building was getting a new tar roof, and the smell was seriously bothering me, giving me a bad headache. I asked to leave and work from home and was reluctantly given permission (chemical sensitivities were still a relatively unknown phenomenon back then, even though I obviously had it, thus it was hard to get people to take it seriously sometimes).

I went home and turned on the TV. And just remember sitting in shock all day. And crying.

Luckily later I found out that a childhood friend survived. He worked in one of the two towers and usually took the subway to work. However, because it was such a beautiful day, he decided to walk instead. He was almost there when the destruction began, and then he got away. He wouldn't have survived had he taken the subway.

I remember my mom saying to me that everyone remembers where they were the day JFK was shot. 9/11 is this generation's equivalent of that. Where were you?