"I Think They Got Bid Laden"

Sophomore year of college I lived with my friend Caylan. I was an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of girl then too. And each morning I put my life on mute for an hour or so until my roommate, my dorm, and all of campus started to wake up.

On September 11, 2001 around 6:30 AM I was having one of those muted mornings - quietly crunching my Quaker Oat Squares while Caylan slept on. I was watching the closed captioned version of Matt and Katie on the Today Show, playing a game of Snood or two, working on the Observer's amateur crossword puzzle, and relishing the no-line shower that is one of those benefits of being a collegiate early riser.

Peter, this is Snood - I know I am not the only one out there that played it ...

Wrapped in my yellow robe, I returned from showering around 8:00 AM to get dressed and head to my Intro to Theater class. First, I checked on Matt and Katie's status though. But they weren't on - instead there was surreal footage of one of the World Trade Towers on fire - smoke billowing up into the blue sky - and a line across the bottom of the screen saying "breaking news."

In a voice a little louder than a whisper I said, "Oh my God ... Caylan, wake up! You have to see this ..."

They went back to Katie and Matt - they were saying that there was a fire at the World Trade Center - that there was an explosion - that they didn't know exactly what had happened, but will stick with the story. They went back to the footage of the smoking Tower. Then I saw it - the second plane coming at the second Trade Tower at full speed, crashing, blowing up, setting that Tower ablaze as well.

And I shouted, "OH MY GOD!! ... CAYLAN, WAKE UP!"

I went across the hall to Kristen's room - "WAKE UP - TURN ON THE TODAY SHOW." I went down the hallway and continued to provide alerts. I was like the Paul Revere of Breen Phillips, secretly so proud of myself that I had been the first to witness the news - that I was the source. Obviously, I didn't really proactively do anything about it except worry, lament and pray with the rest of the nation, especially when I heard that one of the planes had crashed near Pittsburgh. But I had broken the story at Breen Phillips and that meant something to me.

On Sunday night - after a weekend of being showered, I was tired. So tired that I gave in to Grandma Lo's wishes, and washed my face, put on my PJs, hopped into bed, and turned off the light at 8:30 PM. Yes, 8:30 PM.

I zonked out, but as I tend to do every night, I woke up to check my phone around midnight. In a foggy state of half-slumber, I saw two text messages - one from Mrs. Simon telling me how awesome I am (love her!) and one from Peter - it read:

"I think they got Bin Laden."

I rolled over - that was weird. And ... I zonked out again.

Monday morning I woke up and went about my muted business - and while the Early Riser may have gotten the 9/11 and Royal Wedding news as it was happening, apparently her early bedtime accounted for missing some very, very BIG news! My blackberry, Facebook news feed, Twitter homepage, and email box were filled with messages proclaiming that "Ding, Dong, Osama was dead." Everyone, all night long was celebrating this message - this news, that I have completely slept through. As a communications professional, as a news-junky, as a gossip fiend, I was devastated. I had missed it all!

The past two days I've been catching up - learning about the mission, reading about the compound, heeding heightened security alerts, questioning allegations, dissecting new facts and figures - generally making up for lost time. And then thinking about the reception of news ...

We are obsessed with knowing things right away. And with the 24-hour news day - we have become constant, compulsive checkers of email, feeds, alerts, updates and messages. Although I was bummed that I didn't get to tune in to the events as they unfolded on Sunday night, I have learned from work that even if you're the last person to hear the news (which I often am) - the most important thing is what you do with the news - how you react to it, how you translate it, how you create a mutually beneficial response from it.

While again, I feel powerless in the conflicts that are going on around the world - what I can do is offer my support and gratitude to our troops for persevering, making significant strides, and keeping us safe. And I want to thank one power-woman in particular - my cousin, Meghan - my friend (and bridesmaid) who has been serving this country in the armed forces for the past 8 years - who has sacrificed her life during four tours of duty (two to Iraq and two to Afghanistan) - who will be promoted to Major by the end of the year - who is my living, fighting hero - who I know played a big role in getting Bin Laden and who provides excellent rationale for why our generation has a stake in being the greatest as well. Thank you Meghan - I salute you.

Lo.