It was the first or second week of the school year and I was 15 when this happened. My dad was on a business trip and was scheduled to fly back that day. I reca

It was the first or second week of the school year and I was 15 when this happened. My dad was on a business trip and was scheduled to fly back that day. I recall every period we'd be shuffled to the library to pick up our textbooks for the year, where I'd catch glimpses of the live news broadcast they had on the old TVs set up there. My teachers would take us back to class where they attempted to get us engaged in whatever subject-related lecture was on the schedule. Not my world history teacher though. I remember walking into class and he had hooked up his classroom computer to the television (I don't recall the tech involved) and we spent the entire hour watching the news in silence. When I got home my mom told me my dad's plane had been diverted to Salt Lake City and that he'd be driving back to California where we lived. Dad's best friend was a high ranking US Army officer at the Pentagon. My mom spent all day on the phone with the helpline trying to find out if he was all right. Fortunately she was able to talk to someone there who mentioned they had seen him that day and that he hadn't been in the building. To me this still feels recent. I don't know that it ever won't.