Where were you...?

10 years ago, our lives were changed forever. People often ask "where were you?" when major events happen. The death of a president, natural disasters, and of course the attacks on September 11, 2001. Although I wanted to be close to family, I believe that I was in the best place for me that day. I was a sophmore at Liberty University in Mrs. Sherman's education class watching a classmate give the first presentation of the semester- she was from New York. I remember Mrs. Sherman as a short lady that was one of the biggest prayer warriors I had ever met. She told a story our first day of class that when her house was being built, she walked around to every doorway and wrote scripture on the drywall. That way, God's word would always be surrounding her and her family. That morning she kept slipping in and out of the classroom, which we all thought was a little strange. After the first presentation finished, Mrs. Sherman, with tears in her eyes, said that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers and we needed to stop presentations and pray. As we did, she interrupted us a few times to give us updates. When it was clear that it was a terrorist attack and a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, she told us that how we were praying was not good enough, we needed to get on our knees. So our class of elementary education majors got down on our knees beside our desks and prayed in small groups. I'll never forget holding hands with Rebecca Gardner, crying, and not knowing exactly what to pray for, but spending a lot of time asking God to keep the terrorists away from Virginia Beach and the military bases around that area. After a little while, we were dismissed and the rest of the classes were cancelled for the day. There was a convocation that was held that I just remember a lot of prayer, a lot of American flags, and just an eerie feeling around. After that, we all crowded in the commons areas and watched CNN in silence.

I think one of the scariest moments wasn't until days later when the first planes were back in the air. We were in convocation and the plane that flew overhead sounded so loud since we hadn't heard one in so many days. Everyone kind of took a breath after it passed and I think we were all relieved when planes sounded normal agian.

So 10 years later, I still remember that day like it was yesterday. But at the same time, it seems like a lifetime ago. I'm so thankful that I was in a place where prayer was a priority, and patriotism was so apparent, even among the international students.