Today is the day.

Twenty eight years ago on this day, the Challenger exploded in the air.

While we all watched on TV.

I remember it just like it happened last week.

January 28, 1986.

School was cancelled for the day because of rare Georgia snow.

I was in the fifth grade and at daycare because my mom was called in to work.

All of us gathered around the TV to watch the space shuttle take off from the Florida coast.  Only to see it explode in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean.

I remember that the teacher watched with her mouth open, as we all did, and quickly turned off the TV.  She tried to direct our attention back to the snow falling outside, but there was no way we could un-see that moment when seven crew members lost their lives.

I was eleven years old and wanted to be a teacher even more in that moment.

Here I sit today, with an eleven year old.  On the anniversary day of the Challenger tragedy, watching yet again, the rare Georgia snow fall outside my window.

Wondering about the crew members’ family…