We all have our own memories from September 11th, 2001, and I thought I'd use this space to share mine. Before I type any further, I want to make it clear that I want to avoid all the hoopla and unnecessary rehashing of everything that happened that today. At the same time, no American can genuinely claim that their lives haven't changed at all since then. If you've waited an extra minute in airport security, then your life has been influenced by September 11th. For me, the memories of September 11th began on Monday September 10th. It was the beginning of my senior year at the University of Illinois. It was also the week of the engineering job fair. As a senior, it was a little more serious this time. At the job fair, I was part of the ravenous pack dressed to the nines in suits, dress shirts and ties. Boeing was immediately impressed with me and offered me an interview slot the following day. I came home in time to check my email just before house and chapter at the fraternity. It was there that I found the first sad news of the week. One of my best friends, who happened to be a fraternity brother, emailed the house to let everyone know that his girlfriend of a few years had been killed the previous Saturday night -- September 8th. She was coming home from the bars, got off a bus, and didn't see the oncoming car as she tried to cross the street. I immediately went next door to console him and found a number of other brothers already sitting with him. House and chapter went like a blur. I'm sure somebody complained about lack of participation at a rush event, as it was the beginning of the semester. Somebody else (I'm sure) tried to get us pumped for the pre-football BBQ with some sorority for football block. Whatever it was, I don't really remember. The next morning I woke up for my 9 am lab and I was taking a shower when I finally heard the news. This is the unfortunate part. I found out about one of America's saddest moments, from none other than Chicago's twice-as-offensive-but-half-as-funny knockoff of Howard Stern, Mancow. He was freaking out about telling his wife to come home because she worked in the Sears tower. I couldn't exactly understand what had happened because of the noise of the water, but I could tell it was a big deal. I went back to my room and turned on the TV to see my first images of the World Trade Center towers. By this point, the 2nd tower had already been hit and there was no doubt to anyone that this was an act of terrorism. I had a 9 am lab to go to but I wasn't sure what the protocol on going to class is when your country is under attack. After all, Newsweek had recently identified Champaign, IL as one of the 10 most likely attack targets in the US. I didn't personally agree with that assertion, but many others did, and many others who didn't particularly care used it as an excuse to skip class. As I learned, the University of Illinois stops for nobody. In all, the U of I canceled 1 hour of class (that Friday at noon, for a memorial service) and I did go to my physics labs. My physics TA wasn't particularly devoted to teaching his lab, and he'd typically sit in his office down the hall and we'd go to him if we had questions. On that day, I remember him coming in and telling us that they'd hit the Pentagon too. I went to my Boeing interviewin the afternoon and a) the guy was impressed I even bothered to show up. b) He let me know that due to the events of the previous 24 hours, they probably wouldn't be looking to hire too many people. We both had nothing better to do, so we went through the whole interview just for grins. My other memory of that week is that Thursday afternoon. After barbequeing with some friends, the next typical step was to go out drinking since it was early in the semester. I remember sitting there for hours in Mark Hathaway's room. We just watched the cartoon network and made (what we considered) witty comments at an episode of Looney Tunes. The events of Tuesday morning had dampened our spirits. We weren't depressed, or scared or anything, but nothing really seemed to be important or have a point for that matter, other than sitting in front of the TV and joking about how the 'Corn Juice' bottle that the cartoon character kept drinking was actually bootleg liquor. For my friend who lost his girlfriend that week, September 11 actually seemed to make his own loss easier. It wasn't that he was happy to see all these people die, but he had some company and the entire nation was grieving with him. I don't honestly think that life in America has dramatically changed in the past five years. Some people claim September 11 was my generation's Pearl Harbor. I can't say I agree. Pearl Harbor had an immediate and significant effect on the daily lives of people in the US -- rations, doing without certain luxuries, etc. This simply isn't the same. As civilians we no longer have to sacrifice elements of our own lives for out country during times of war. I would love to go further into this topic but I don't want to break into the realm of the political fallout of what happened five years ago. PS: Feel free to post your own memories in the comments. As a sidenote, while I do believe in free speech, I will delete your post if it gets too political. You can post that on your own blog, and I'll likely read it too.