I got up early on September 11th to shoot the University of Illinois Black Chorus perform at 7:46am (the time at which the first airplane struck the World Trade Center 8 years ago). It was a very inspiring performance and was really a great way to start out my day.

PS. Since we ran the whole “My September 11th story” in the newspaper, I figured I’d share mine as well: In 2001, I was a wee 14-year-old going into my 2nd day of high school. A naive freshman as I was, I had already forgot my new locker combination that I learned the day before. So, I reluctantly walked over to the security desk so I could have them unlock it and grab my books. While I was following a security guard around, I heard a few tidbits about something happening in New York over the radio, but I was pretty much in the dark for most of the morning. As the day went on, I picked up on little pieces of information here and there, and it wasn’t until one of my last classes of the day that I learned the towers fell and saw glimpses of what happened.  And even then, it wasn’t until I got home in the afternoon and was glued to the television for hours with my family (my parents had been sent home from work)… that I truly understood the gravity of September 11, 2001.