Remembering...

It was a beautiful day nine years ago, I was staying with my grandma while I was traveling for work. I was up early that day and had breakfast with my grandma and went to the cemetery to visit my grandpa. I remember looking over the corn fields ready for harvest and thinking how much the land and world had changed from when my grandpa worked the land and started his family so long ago.
I was driving back to my office, a two hour drive, and flipping through the radio stations when I heard the report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought "what an idiot, who hits the WTC?" As the reports continued coming in I couldn't help but wonder if it was for real or a sick joke like the War of the Worlds radio broadcast from 1938. It became apparent though that it was for real and not a sick joke but a horrible nightmare.
I remember looking up at the beautiful, clear blue sky and thinking it couldn't be possible. I called my boss, very upset, and because they weren't watching TV or listening to radio they really didn't know what was going on and she said everything was fine and not to worry. I stopped at my parent's house to see my mom and to watch TV. Like so many I was horrified and transfixed. I had to leave and get to work, another 45 minute drive, I prayed and cried and wondered why.
I was an Admissions Counselor for South Dakota State University at the time and that afternoon my co-worker and I had to visit dorm rooms that would be used as examples on tours for prospective students. It was eery to walk the halls, normally bustling and loud with music and voices, the dorms were almost quiet except for the news running on TV updating the tragedy in NYC and Pennsylvania. Students had quotes and bible verses written on the marker boards on their doors.
That night I went to Mass and the number of people that were there to pray and mourn together was strengthening. I still pray and remember and hope for the past and our future; may this NEVER happen again.