Where was I twenty-five years-ago on this day? In a sleepy little suburb of Nashville, Tenn. It was a snow day. Me, my siblings and all the neighbor kids were having a brutal Monopoly battle Royal. There was a small black and white television sitting on my parents living room floor. The television was tuned to the shuttle launch. We were excited to watch and the event seemed like it would just be part of a much appreciated day off school. 

Everyone I knew was watching and so was the rest of the world. We stopped the game just long enough to recite the count down with mission control and watch as the first teacher would be launched into space. Then, it happened, the shuttle blew apart. It all seemed like part of the show at first. It was the only shuttle launch I'd seen, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I said, "was that suppose to happen?"  There was confusion in the room and then total disbelief.

But,  the more they showed the video footage the more it sunk in that it was real. I'd just witnessed people dying. I'm not sure if we continued the competition after that but, I will never forget where I was that disastrous day.

Fast forward to college, I had the opportunity to cover a shuttle launch while on my first internship. The chief photographer at the Brevard County Florida newspaper I was working for, took me on assignment with him to Cape Canaveral.

I was excited for the launch, but mostly I just wanted to do a good job in front of my boss. Then just before the shuttle launched he leaned over and said, "don't shoot your entire roll of film at the start of the launch." I must have looked puzzled because he then said, "just in case it blows up."

I was a little shocked by his words, but understood quickly what he meant, as memories of the Challenger rushing back to me.

He told me about how on that day many of the photographers were either to shocked to keep shooting or had spent their roll too quickly at the start of the launch.

The launch that day went off with out a hitch, and  I was grateful. But, it was in that moment that I realized how history effects us all and how my experience that day had been shape by the past.

Today I'm reminded once again of the Challenger. Certainly it was not the history I was expecting to witness but, it is now part of my history for life.