At that point in time, I was sitting in Mrs. Wagner's third grade class at Franklin Township Elementary School. I was 8-years old at the time and my aspiration for when I grew up was to be, of all things, an astronaut. For so many the realization of what happened that day was shocking. Even for grown adults, seeing the shuttle destroyed live on the air was devastating. For a third grader who wanted to be on that shuttle, devastating doesn't begin to explain how I felt.
Needless to say, my life path changed that day. it most likely would have anyway. Who, in third grade, knows what they want to be and then follows through on this 20 years later. Still, the shock of that day for me was personal. I didn't know anyone on board that shuttle, except in the public way that we all grew to know Christa McAuliffe. Many of us didn't even know the names of the astronauts as this was a routine, everyday mission for them. They were doing what they were born to do. But still, the personal attachment of a dream is just as poignant. It is no less devastating when that dream is ripped away by tragedy.
Three years later, sitting in my reading class in Mrs. Phiel's sixth grade classroom in the newly built Franklin Township Elementary, I remember watching the space program get back off the ground and launching a shuttle for the first time since Challenger. I remember actually clapping and cheering for this while others in the class looked at me as if I had two heads. Indeed, while my career aspirations had changed, my love of space exploration and travel was still there.
The devastation of seeing Columbia fall apart in the morning sky several years later was shocking, but it was very different than that morning in 1986.Perhaps my more adult and less naive mind grasp what had happened. Maybe its because I had seen it before. Perhaps my senses had been dulled by other world and personal tragedy. Whatever it was, I was still riveted to the news, but not the same ways as I was with Challenger.
In every person's life, there are "where were you when" moments. For a generation is was the Kennedy Assassination. For my generation it was the Challenger and 9/11. They are moments that we wish we never experienced but also moments we will never forget.
To those astronauts that perished that cold morning in January 1986 we will never forget your sacrifice and we will not forget your mission. As President Reagan said in lieu of his State of the Union speech that night in January...
The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
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