I turned on the TV when I woke up. It immediately went to ESPN, which my roommate had been watching the night before. Baseball highlights from the night before were on the screen for a moment before the anchor cut in to say that all though everyone was here for sports, “We can’t ignore what just happened in New York”. Oh shit. I saw the second plane hit on Sportscenter. That’s not the impact you usually see on Sportscenter.

I watched for a bit along, then wandered out of my dorm room. It wasn’t a time to be alone. I ended up sitting in my RD’s apartment with a number of other people when the first tower collapsed. The gasps of “Oh God” remain echoing 15 years later.

That night, I watched President Bush address the nation in Ben’s room. I didn’t know it then, but that was going to be the start of an unjust war that continues to claim lives 13 years after “Missioned Accomplished”.

When NPR news came on this morning, it was the same tragedy being discussed, but it took place in a different city. New York was not my city then, but it is my city today. I sleep in my apartment one mile from Ground Zero. I’ve sat in the building that replaced the towers. I’ve worked there, looking down on where the towers stood as I sat in meetings. It’s been fifteen years, and yet every time I turn on Sportscenter, I’ll never forget where I was the morning of Septemeber 11, 2001.