Five years ago, today, the attacks happened. I think it's safe to say the world changed on that day. Where were you when it happened? What were you thinking? (I don't want to hear any politics, here. That would be disrespectful and tasteless)

It seems cliche' to say, but I'll never forget where I was when I heard the announcement. I was in US history class, we had just finished up the days course work and we were all sitting around and waiting for the bell to ring. Our principle came over the loudspeakers to tell us the horrible news. I listened in disbelief as he told us that a plane hit the first tower, then a plane hit the second, then the first collapsed, and that the pentagon was hit. It was like being punched in the gut several times. As he signed off, he stayed in a moment of silence with all of us, said a small prayer, then had us go on our way. Worse thing, we were expected to still participate as if it was a normal day. There was no chance that I could focus on academics. I left class, still hadn't seen the videos of the crashes. I didn't know how bad it was yet, but I knew many lives had been lost, and that this was indeed a catastrophic day. In the halls walking to engineering class, I looked around and saw everyone walking in disbelief, as if they were all zombies. Some people were crying, some looked angry, but no one looked un effected. I passed my best friend, Norm, in that hall . We made eye contact, he shook his head at me, and without saying anything we passed, but we had just communicated everything to each other. When I got to engineering class, I finally got to a TV where I could see the disaster. The plume of smoke, and the burning single tower. I was devestated. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen. I immediatly emailed some friends, assuming they hadn't heard of the events yet. Our teacher told us to try and focus, we were going to move on with our CAD and design studies. As he taught, I coulnd't keep my eyes off the television. I watched on live television as the second tower suddenly fell into a pile of dust. I covered my mouth, unable to utter a word. The whole class tensed up as everyone turned to look. The teacher's words were these: "oh, the second one fell? yeah..." Then he kept going with class. He is one of my favorite teachers from homework, and I know he was just trying to do his part to get our minds off it, but I couldn't take it. It seemed like he didn't care enough. I just couldn't work. After that, it was class after class, my mind only thinking about one single thing. Students were talking about getting gas because prices would hike, and sure enough it did. I went home, watched the news with my brother and mom, we stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning watching news. It was a horrible day, and one that I will no doubt ever forget.

I was worried about my uncle, who worked in that part of the pentagon that was destroyed. However, he happened to be on a dentist appointment at that time.

I was pretty young at the time. I'd just gotten back from my primary school in the hope of getting to see some kiddie telly, but every channel was linked to their respective news program, emblazoned with 'BREAKING NEWS' and 'TWIN TOWERS CRASH'... I went into the kitchen and said to my mum, 'Mum... I think something serious has happened. Two skyscrapers have been hit by some planes'... at which she completely freaked out and ran into the living room.

It's only lately that I've seen footage due to this whole memorial business, where I actually understand the implications... every time I see the planes crash, it makes me shiver.

Oddly enough, it was also me that told my mum about the London Bombings. Our German teacher showed us the BBC website at school, on the digital projector... when I got into the car from the station going home, I immediately said to mum, 'Come on, get the Radio on quick, I want to hear what's happened in London'. She seemed pretty nonplussed, and when I explained that London had been bombed, she freaked out again...

I didn't even find out all the details until I got home.. I just remember being some announcement I couldn't here because I was in gym class, a lot of rumors, and a bunch of idiots worrying about places the terrorists wouldn't even probably care about striking ("OMIGOSH THE MORMON TEMPLE!").

The entire week following the event was full of nothing but newscasts for me. I watched the news constantly, getting every bit of information I could. It was a horrible event, history at it's cutting edge, and I wanted to make sure I knew and understood everything about it. I got little amounts of sleep each night, stayed up too late watching.

I remember being in my classroom, and all of a sudden, at one of our breaks, a TV was put out by the office, and no one really went back to class. We just sat... and watched.

Pretty powerful stuff. And yet it's made our country stronger.

I was in primary school when it happened. I remember seeing it on the news. Bit of a shock, really.

I live in Australia so I wasn't in US but there was still alot of new coverage. Still I didn't internalize all this as much as guys because I dont live in the USA and Ive already heard alot of other devestating news. I din't realize the impact it was having in US