'I know now, because I was there'

ALLAS -- I never knew JFK. \nI never voted for JFK. \nI was never one of his constituents. \nI wasn't even born until 20 years after his death. \nBut the second I stepped foot on the corner of Elm and Houston in downtown Dallas, I knew I was a part of history.\nThe movies and the pictures can show you the story, but actually being there tells the story. As my friends and I made our way through the halls of what is now the Dallas County Administration Building, once known as the Texas School Book Depository, I could start to feel a calm settling over them. But it wasn't a cool and collected calm. It was a frozen-in-the-moment calm. Silence blanketed the group. Not because words couldn't be spoken within the building, but because no words were needed. \nFor those of us who chose to further our dive into history and visit the infamous sixth floor, now a museum, a firsthand history lesson was awaiting us.\nStepping off that elevator was like entering a different dimension. It brought us back to the early '60s: a time of love, rock and roll, the Cold War and peace. \nGasps could be heard and mouths stood open as each of us made our way through the exhibit, making sure we didn't miss a word, a sound, a picture. \nFor us, college students in 2003, 40 years ago seems like an eternity. This was our way of absorbing ourselves in the past.\nAs we moved our way through the maze of photographs and maps, it hit us -- the glass-enclosed southeast corner of the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository. Everything was set up as it was 40 years ago.\nBoxes were still stacked, the tape was drying out, but the perch upon which Lee Harvey Oswald took aim at our 35th President was still there. One box for him to sit on and two to steady the gun. \nSeeing everything in person put it all in a different perspective. \nLooking out of the window next to the one out of which Oswald shot, we peered over Dealey Plaza. \nCuriosity sparked my interest and I asked the tour guide where, exactly, JFK was shot. \n"Follow that little red car…," he said as the group sat attentively watching the car travel down Elm Street. "BAM! That's where it happened."\nAnd from that moment on, I had my own memory of where JFK was assassinated. \nAs we moved on to the rest of the exhibit, I could tell everyone was thinking about what just happened. For the rest of our visit, I wasn't able to look at the split-second frame-by-frame enlarged photographs in the same way. My mind kept triggering the tour guide's words. \n"BAM! That's where it happened." \nAs we moved through the rest of the exhibit, those words were hard to lose. Everything was part of it. Everything was there including the hats of the detectives who questioned Oswald and the 13 video recorders the museum has collected that filmed the assassination. \nEverything was there. And now we were. \nAt times it was hard to fathom that I was on the most famous sixth floor ever. \nWe were visiting Dallas for a journalism conference, and knew we couldn't miss this piece of history. Seeing this firsthand not only helped us become better people, but it helped us become better journalists. Certain places have an everlasting effect on a person, and now, for the rest of our lives, whenever JFK comes up, we can relate.\nLeaving the floor, I signed a memory book. Coming in, I didn't have any memories, but leaving, I had formulated my own. I now understand what my parents mean when they talk about where they were when JFK got shot. I know now, because I was there.