Where was Will on September 11th 2001?
I was at work in a call centre. The news didn't break in one sudden moment; it took hours to build up. At first it was "There's been a plane crash in New York," and then it became, "A plane crashed into a building," and after an hour or so it came out that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. At the time I wasn't even sure what the World Trade Centre was. Everybody was trying to get on the news websites to find out what had happened but it was impossible, they were just too busy. The feeling in the office was one of awe. It seemed very distant and so it was more exciting than tragic.
When I heard that one of the buildings had actually collapsed I felt a shock. That event really hammered home the scale of what had happened. At lunchtime we went to the pub to watch on the TV, and when I actually saw the plane go into the building I was utterly dumbfounded; I'd never seen anything like it. It was when I saw footage of the buildings collapse that I realised that it was most likely the biggest 'event' of my lifetime. For the rest of the day there was an awful feeling of uncertainty and fear - it could happen to anybody, at any time.
[Added on 4/12/02]