I was home sick from work. I had felt horrible that day and decided it was worth it to just lounge around the house.

My boyfriend, of the time, came over and decided to go get some food for him and myself. I was just doing my same old sick-day routine... watching "Golden Girls", reading magazines and lounging on the couch. When he returned, he said to turn on the news. Well, he's someone who actually enjoys watching the news. I don't mind it much, but not right in the middle of the day. I just figured that's what he wanted to watch. So I told him no, I liked what I was watching. He said, "No you don't understand! A plane hit a building in New York."

Apparently while at the restaurant, he caught the first glimpse of what was going on. So, I turned it on and we learned that it was one of the towers. They kept replaying the small amount of tape that they had, and mixed it with live reports. Then I watched the live feed, as I heard a news reporter exclaim, "Oh my God!". I stared in amazement while watching the second plane crash into the South Tower. I have never seen a more horrible site in my life.

Just as I thought it couldn't get much worse, the live feed broke in again as the South Tower began to collapse. I think my heart sunk with it.

Before the North Tower fell, they were showing the scenes of people jumping out of the windows in a desperate attempt to either save themselves, or just to create a faster death. Nothing frightens me more than the memory of those people jumping to their deaths.

I can remember just wanting to turn it off. To make it go away as quickly as it came. I tried to call my mom for hours before I could get through. She wasn't in New York, or anywhere near an attack, but I just had this overwhelming urge to hear her voice.

A year later, I still cry at the thought of the events of that day. I will never forget what happened, and the way it has opened my eyes to both love and hate. If anything good came out of this, it was a heightened sense of life, good and bad.

They say this is our generation's Pearl Harbor, and I will spend the rest of my life praying that my future children never get their turn.