Where were you when history happened?

I was born in the 80s. So. I have only lived through one democratic president in my lifetime. Which could possibly explain my Republican standing. Who knows. But looking back on all the major historical events in your lifetime, you always remember where you were and what you were doing when it happened. Like the September 11th events, for example, I was a senior in High School. The first time I heard about the plane crashes was in my CHEM II class - the first class of the day. We didn't really have classes that day in my small town. Instead, in every class, the TV was tuned to the News stations. Every teacher and every student sat and watched the events on TV all morning. Up until that exact day, I had no reason to be concerned about the government, about my safety, about terrorists. I never had the thought that one day my little brother would be one of the soldiers deployed to Iraq to fight for our freedom had never even crossed my mind. I can imagine all the text messages sent that day.

But what about the inauguration this year? I've seen many examples of parents writing letters to their kids about that important day. When their kids and grandkids are older they will have a piece of history written by a member of their family when they could only otherwise read about it in history books. My problem with that is - well, I don't have kids. Nonetheless, I will without a doubt remember where I was that day.

It was a Tuesday. I will remember that because Tuesdays are the day that I have clinical rotations. Every Tuesday, of every week, of every month, I wake up at ungodly o'clock in the morning to drive an hour, maybe two, to the hospital chosen by my Respiratory Care clinical instructor to complete my training hours required of my medical profession. Now, on a typical day in any hospital some patients watch TV; some don't. Usually I can't even tell if a patient is watching TV at all until I go into their room. But this day was much different. Every TV in every room was set to the same program. I could hear the inauguration in every room, in every office, in every hallway, in every waiting room. It was like an echo everywhere I went. There were rumors of about two million people at the event. I even heard math jokes if you can imagine: "2 million people divided by 5000 porta potties = what?". I thought that I would miss the most historical inauguration event ever to take place thus far due to my clinical training. Instead, it was intertwined with my life, with my education. It was ringing in my mind all day, embedding itself in my memory. Politics aside, I feel honored to be able to experience a piece of history that day. Although I don't have children to share it with in a letter, I am sure the inauguration of 2009 will be a day I will always remember.