This story may not be touching, but still has been scarred to my memory, unlike many others from my childhood which have blurred. I recall coming out of my room, facing a great commotion, at the age of 7, it was nearly my birthday. I came out to the living room with my mother on the sofa watching T.V., except her hand was clutched to her mouth and the slightest hint of tears in her eyes. My father came running up to see what was happening, and though he is Chinese culturally and socially, the devastation unfolding on T.V. was not foreign. I just remember the fresh sentence that emerged from my mouth straight from my brain, “is this a movie?”. I realize now the level of surprise and how unrealistic the scene was completely shocked me into believing it was a movie – I didn’t even have the slightest idea that it was occurring thousands of miles away in NYC, while i sat safely in Shanghai. I know people who have lost people in the terrifying disaster, and I as an American feel my mothers pain through me as she is native to the U.S. I simply wanted to share my memory, even though i was a child at the time.