I was very weary with my mother for waking me up at what I felt was the crack of dawn (6:20 a.m.) on Tuesday to get up and dressed to go to Rockefeller Center and watch a taping of the Today show. We were on vacation in the Big Apple, and her one goal was getting on TV as one of the bystanders in the back ground of the broadcast.

She had hand-lettered a sign reading “Matt Lauer : You stole my birthday!” in order to get his attention. I pulled myself together, and coffee in hand, headed down 49th Avenue towards NBC Studios.

Once we were there we jostled for a good spot and then waited to be noticed. I escaped momentarily to find the line for possible Late Night With Conan O’Brien tickets, and then returned to my mother’s spot in the square to wait for 9 a.m., when the tickets would be given out.

Just before 9, Matt Lauer came out to say hello to the crowd. While shaking adoring female’s hands, he was handed a note by a person working on the show and escorted inside. The look on his face said it all; something terrible had happened.

“We have a situation at the World Trade Center, we’ll be back in a minute,” is what Katie Couric’s voice was heard to say while the show went to station break. My mother, her face much different now than it had been moments before, just looked at me. “The World Trade? A bombing? Oh my God,” she said. “Mom, I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said, totally confused.

The television monitors came back on, displaying the awful news. a plane had collided with One World Trade, causing an inferno of immense proportions. Just as we were digesting the scene, the second plane came into view. “Mommy, LOOK!” I screamed. The plane disappeared behind the building, and then ripped through Two World Trade. I instantly knew I had witnessed, from a few miles away, countless innocent people perishing in the horrific blaze.

Police cleared the block a few minutes later, and we proceeded back to our hotel, clinging to each other and jumping at what would be ordinary sounds such as buses releasing their air brakes and car horns. From our hotel room, we watched the rest of the days unbelievable events take place, praying for an end and wondering how we were going to get home.

All of a sudden being awake at an abnormal hour, standing at the Today show with my mother and persuing Conan O’Brien tickets seemed like a moment in time I would rather relive for the rest of my life. Rather than the days later, wondering about the future of the world as we know it.

As students at Ohio State, we think we know what “big” is. We don’t. This tragedy is bigger than anything that young men and women of our generation, ever expected. Being there, being in New York when the Towers were attacked and eventually destroyed, made me realize that this will shape how we think and feel for the rest of our lives.

It is our responsiblity as a generation to no longer be “Generation X” but “Generation Yes.” We must come together and help rebuild what has been demolished, and rise above the terror and uncertainty we all feel now to be stronger for ourselves, our nation and future generations.