I grew up with Vietnam, it was the first televised war. It was on TV for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as were the protests. I thought nothing could be worse.

The Challenger crashed on my birthday in 1986. I was so excited to watch an historic launch on my birthday. I knew something was wrong long before they said anything. I said out loud (no one was in the room but me) "that doesn't look right" and a few seconds later...

I used to work in the WTC, long before 9/11 but I came to love those buildings. I didn't know that the FHLB had moved (though I've been told they may still have had offices there, they were not on the tenant list I read after the attack).

Fortunately I was not alive through the Titanic, Hindenburg and most especially the Holocaust. They are still achingly tragic even just knowing about them.

It was especially difficult for me during 9/11 when I found out about a friend that died in the blast. He was working in one of the towers.

Challenger was really horrible, especially since I had previously met some of the astronauts as a child. It was like losing a relative.