I was in the second grade, getting ready for school. In my house, watching the space shuttle take off of on the morning news was like watching the New Year's Eve Ball drop. Anyway, all the teachers in my school made the launch a major event because of Christa McAuliffe.

We watched the shuttle take off, burst into flames and my mother and grandmother in shock, sending me off to school with the words "what a shame" repeating over and over in my head. I was pretty much numb for the rest of the day because I couldn't even fathom how a teacher could just die like that. It was really sad.