On a Tuesday morning

Ten years ago this morning, I was sitting in a classroom at Park University listening to a professor speak about public relations. A fellow student came into class late and seemed agitated, and while the professor was in mid-sentence the student said, "Do you all realize the World Trade Center is under attack?"

That was the moment our lives changed. But as President Obama said in an interview with ABC News this morning, our lives really haven't changed that much. People still work in skyscrapers. We still laugh and love and cry, just like before (although we may do all those things with a little more feeling now). We still fly on jumbo jets. We still cross bridges and go through tunnels that have been labeled "potential targets."

As I write this, survivors are reading the names of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some of the survivors are in their teens; they can't be old enough to remember much from that day. I think back to the 21-year-old kid I saw in the mirror back then. I'm glad I was old enough to remember it. I'm glad it's burned into my brain. And I know I'll never forget.