Once Upon a Lifetime

The first major historical event I can remember was when I was 3 years old and I had put a bead in my ear and my mom had to take me to the emergency room to get it out… I remember watching the Challenger explode over and over on the tiny TV in the ER bed I was laying in. Looking at the date of the challenger explosion makes me realize that my brother was born barely a month before! I don’t really remember what I was thinking at the time, but now I wonder if I wanted more attention since I just got a new brother 🤔

I remember “being on austerity” in elementary school and not really understanding what it meant. As time went on, it became obvious that it meant that there wasn’t any extra anything anywhere… there were always talks about the school budget and if it would get passed. I remember Desert Storm.

The biggest, and probably most influential was 9-11-2001… I was a sophomore in college… my roommates and I went to the Cafe to grab something to eat before our 9:30 classes and as I walked in, I saw a very disturbing sight on the big screen TV in the cabaret… at first I didn’t think much of it. I assumed someone was watching a movie… but a few minutes later as my friends and I left, it became obvious that we were watching the live news… and what we saw was terrifying. We were at school on the Hudson River, just across from one of the many terrorist targets for that day. I didn’t go to my usual Tuesday morning class after seeing what we saw on the news. This was before everyone and their brothers had cell phones… None of the phones at my school worked. My friends and I went across the street to a payphone at the bagel store where I was able to talk to my family and confirm that they were OK and so were my uncles who were NYPD at the time.

There is another major event that sticks out- it was when I was already in the Navy. A friend and coworker messaged me that “WE GOT HIM!!” And he told me to put the news on… May 2, 2011 and sure enough, he was right. I later found out that a good friend/roommate was on the Carl Vinson when he was captured… that was something that defined/defines our generation and knowing who was on board that day is nothing short of an honor.