Where were you when...

[Italiahaircolor]

You heard about Columbine?

I have always heard people speak about where they were when major life changing events tooks place...and as I get older, this becomes more "real" for me.

I remember hearing about Columbine after school (I was in high school at the time)...and watching the coverage on MTV just shocked and terrified and saddend. I remember watching it literally from when I got home till early, early in the morning...and the following day at school there was an atmosphere of change. Maybe people were "nicer" or more aware...but it felt like things had changed. In many of my classes that day we had mini townhall meetings where we were able to freely discuss Columbine with our peers.

That was the first major school shooting massacre I'd ever been aware of...and the more time goes by, the more I feel like they are more common than ever before.

 

[kiett98]

I was a freshman in college and remember watching it on Good Morning America. So tragic...

 

[InLuv101]

It''s actually sad that I can''t remember. I was shocked today when I heard that it was the 10th anniversary. I was 16, but for the life of me, I can''t remember what I was doing or how I felt/reacted. A decade goes by so very quickly.

 

[Rhea]

I was about to finish high school. I don''t remember where I was. It sounds right that our teachers turned on the news during school, but I''m not sure.

I do remember where I was when Diana died and when I heard about the planes being flown into the Twin Towers.

 

[purrfectpear]

It just wasn''t that significant, so I don''t remember. I remember watching the news afterwards but that''s because it was on for two days.

 

[bee*]

I think I was just home from school when I heard about it on our news over here. Hard to believe it''s that long ago.

 

[musey]

I don't remember exactly... but it was 10 years ago which would have put me in high school, barely. It was not treated like a 'big deal' at my school, and we didn't see a whole lot of news coverage on it (so I remember, at least). I do remember they had a counselor in the building to talk to any students upset by it.

I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the twin towers having been hit, and I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it on screen.

 

[BeachRunner]

Date: 4/20/2009 5:35:18 PM
Author: musey
I don''t remember exactly... but it was 10 years ago which would have put me in high school, barely. It was not treated like a ''big deal'' at my school, and we didn''t see a whole lot of news coverage on it (so I remember, at least). I do remember they had a counselor in the building to talk to any students upset by it.


I remember exactly where I was when I heard about the twin towers having been hit, and I remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it on screen.

Ditto. I was in high school, and I remember watching the news casts about it.

I also remember 9/11 vividly.

 

[basil]

It''s odd, I don''t remember where I was when I heard about Columbine...I was in college at that time.

I remember I was on school spring vacation during the Oklahoma city bombing and I watched a lot of that on tv.

I remember watching the OJ Simpson verdict in band class in high school.

I do remember hearing about Diana''s death. It was right after I moved into the dorm to start college and I was a little isolated from the news cause I didn''t have a tv and it was the first time I had ever had the internet so I didn''t know enough to follow things online. Someone told me and I didn''t believe them cause I thought they were playing a joke on the freshmen.

And in 2001, I had just started my first real job out of college (on 9/8/01) and I had just moved to Boston. I heard people talking outside my cube about a plane hitting the WTC. I couldn''t get on the CNN website cause it was jammed, but someone turned on a radio. I was scared being in a big city, so I called my dad, but my boss would be mad if I talked too long. I knew a few people who worked in really big skyscrapers (the Prudential, etc.) and they got evacuated.

 

[luckystar112]

I was a sophomore or junior in high school and I don''t remember talking/caring about it at all, as awful as that sounds. But I DO remember when it happened, if that makes sense. I think we were just caught up in our own little worlds back then. I do remember that after Columbine my high school started taking threats VERY seriously. A bomb threat no longer resulted in us hanging out in the gym for a period, we were evacuated from the school and sent home. I remember that at the end of my senior year we had spirit week, which was full of a ton of fun events, including a huge dance/skit that each grade put on. We had rehearsed for a couple of weeks. Some idiot kid decided to write some dumb poem in the bathroom stall, and it was percieved to be threatening (I saw it later and it was no big deal, but...). They canceled the rest of spirit week and we never got to do our skit. I''m positive that was because of Columbine as well. I remember that afterwards the kid was expelled and all of his little artsy fartsy friends made t-shirts and signs and protested for his return in the center of town.

Ten years........time flies by WAY too fast after high school.

I definitely remember everything about 9/11.

And I remember how I found out about princess Diana. I was 14 at the time and my mom worked at the hospital until 11pm. She came home that night and I was OUTSIDE talking to some random older boys who were smoking cigarettes. She was not happy. She dragged me inside, and in the middle of yelling at me, turned on the TV to Diana coverage. Then all of a sudden she stopped and said, "I still can''t believe she''s gone...".

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 4/20/2009 5:00:34 PM
Author: purrfectpear
It just wasn''t that significant, so I don''t remember. I remember watching the news afterwards but that''s because it was on for two days.

I''m going to have to ditto this. The only thing I was worried about was the fact that it was so close to my birthday. Thats about all I remember.

Now 9/11, Princess Di...I remember those perfectly.

 

[dragonfly411]

If I remember correctly I was in middleschool and our county actually CANCELLED all school the following day to take a day of mourning.

 

[marcy]

I was getting my oil changed and was setting in the waiting room watching TV.

Strange as it seems that is exactly where I was on the morning of 9/11. When I got there the first tower had been hit, by the time I left the second tower had been hit.

I never went there again to get my oil changed.

 

[ksinger]

Sadly, Columbine was tragic, but didn''t impact me at all, to the point of remembering anything about circumstances at the time. But April 19th, 1995? Oh yeah. At 8 blocks from the Murraugh building, I remember the weather, exactly what I was wearing, who I was on the phone to when I heard the bomb go off, and exactly what happened within 4 minutes of the blast. That whole day was surreal, and nothing took precedence over it until 9/11, when all of it came flooding back, only far worse...

I never read anything about it, but I''ve often wondered how many of the NY firefighters who came to help us in OKC, died in the twin towers....

 

[Bia]

I do remember because I stayed home from school (HS) and my grandmother was with me. I was watching a Law & Order rerun, and I saw the coverage while I was channel surfing through commercials. Funny how certain things stay so vivid in your memory. Very sad.

I'll ditto those who said they clearly remember where they were for Princess Diana's death and 911 (most people remember Sept. 11th). I also remember where I was when we learned JFK jr's plane went missing.

 

[swimmer]

I remember Columbine clearly, it was my first year teaching. It was at an urban school and the next morning I had my students journal on what had happened. The kids pointed out that no one cared if they were shot, that in their very poor immigrant neighborhood no one really noticed when someone was killed, but in a white, middle class school everyone seemed to care about their murders.

I was really stunned, the rampage in CO had shocked me, (I also remember admiring what a nice school Columbine was), we were studying WWII and my students indicated that the massacre in CO seemed as distant to their lives as the Holocaust in Germany more than six decades ago. I am sad just thinking about it again.

9/11 I was also teaching, kids were really freaked out.

Princess Di''s death came on TV when I was volunteering at a homeless shelter during college, there were several men there who cried for the loss of such a beautiful soul.

 

[mimzy]

i was in eighth grade at the time, i *think* i was in my eighth period social studies class (which was in a detached classroom...maybe that's why the memory stuck?). i also know exactly where i was when i heard about princess di, even though i didn't really know who she was. i cried with my mom later that week watching her funeral, i think just because my mom was crying. i also remember the OKC bombings (much more clearly then columbine, even) even though i was only in fourth grade. i remember playing hopscotch later that day at recess and constantly messing up because i was teary. i remember seeing the headlines and pictures in the newspaper the day after at my dad's apartment, and talking to him about the day care center in the building.as cheesy as it is, that year garth brooks came out with a song sort of commemorating the bombing victims and since then honestly there hasn't been a day that's gone by that i haven't think about that song. i have no idea why, it just stuck with me, and i really try to live up to it. i guess it's become a personal mantra of sorts.

 

[Skippy123]

I don't remember where I was but I do remember feeling horrible for the familes and the students. I can't believe it has been 10 yrs. I was in college at the time.