Where were you?

I have this wipe-on, wipe-off board outside of my office. Everyone else uses theirs to announce meetings, absences, etc, but I mostly use mine for "today in history." I feel like it's important to educate myself and those around me. I use the History Channel website for the info, it's a really good site. Anyway, today's history was that Princess Diana died on this day in 1997. It was jarring on a couple of levels. First of all, it made me remember EXACTLY when I heard that news. I was visiting my parents in New Delhi on summer break before the fall semester of my senior year. We were walking out of the American Club recreation centre, and we ran into someone my dad worked with--he said, "Have you heard? Princess Diana's been in a terrible accident." We went into the restaurant dining room and turned on the news and they were just beginning to report the car crash--because of the time change, it was the middle of the day for us and 2-3am in Paris. We watched for about 3 hours while they got her out of the car, took her to the hospital, pronounced her dead. No one said anything, I remember thinking that somehow it couldn't be possible that she could be killed, and by something so mundane as a car crash at that, like she was superhuman or something. I remembered getting up in the middle of the night in 1981 to watch her wedding. We have a biscuit tin commemorating the event. It just didn't. seem. possible. A week later I was in London for my semester abroad, and the entire city was effed. Just completely emotionally exhausted. The most remarkable thing was how QUIET everyone was. Not mad or sad or anything, just nothing. It knocked the wind out of everyone. Bottom line, it was a defining moment in our generation. Where were you?

Oh. The other thing that threw me for a loop is that it has now been SEVEN years since. Seven years. That just seems unreal.