9/11/2001 - Where were you? What do you remember?

Edit: @AriFleischer is former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer for President GW Bush. He tweets detailed pictures and thoughts of the day each year. Really a great follow on Twitter.

I was in 5th grade but I remember the day clearly. My alarm went off at 7:15am (8:15 EST) and I rolled out of bed and went downstairs to eat a buttered bagel for breakfast. To help me wake up, I turned on Good Morning America for background noise. As I was finishing up breakfast, the first plane hit the North Tower. I remember being naive and thinking "oh that's terrible, but hopefully everyone survived and the firemen can use their ladders to reach the fire." I clearly had no concept for how large these buildings were and never really grasped it until I visited the 9/11 site years later. I walked upstairs to finish getting dressed and told my dad nonchalantly, who was instantly more concerned than I was. He knew that it could be an accident, but it could be much much worse. A few minutes later, I hear my dad yelling "DID YOU SEE THAT!? DID YOU SEE THAT?!". I came out of my room and thinking what happened. My dad said "another plane hit the World Trade Center. At that point, he, along with most of the US, knew it was a terrorist attack. I had no concept of what terrorism was and didn't understand that there were people in the world that would harm other innocent people because they did not agree with them.

Not much else was said for the next 15-20 minutes before my dad took me to school. We listened on the radio to school. I had no concept of what was going on and my dad was too much in shock to say anything. I remember getting to school and asking my teacher if she had heard that 2 planes hit the world trade center. She hadn't and immediately left the room to go to the principal office, where a TV was located, to see what was going on.

I remember the rest of the day being somber. Teacher crying, parents picking their children up from school, my school holding an assembly at the end of the day. They tried to explain but being so young many of us just didn't understand. It wasn't till later in the afternoon when I heard about the Pentagon. At that point in time, I had heard of the Pentagon but had no concept of what it was or looked liked. Today, I have family friends that live a mile of so away from the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. You can see the Pentagon from their condo balcony. Every time I visit them, I think of what it would of been like to witness the attack on the Pentagon from this angle. I remember hearing about the towers falling and then starting to realize it was bad. I remember getting home around 3:30pm from school and just watching coverage on the attacks on every channel - ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, CSPAN, etc the rest of the night.

My story is similar to millions of stories out there. I was in no way connected to the attacks, but it does make me feel better discussing that day. I'm sure many of you have memories of the attack. Where were you and what do you remember that day?