I was in fifth grade. It was the end of the school day, and the principal made the announcement over the intercom while I was sitting in Miss Beezley's classroom. The Space Shuttle Challenger had exploded, and all of the astronauts were lost.

I remember riding the bus home thinking it had to be a mistake, or an awful joke of some kind. Things like that didn't happen. There was a teacher on board, for goodness' sake, not just astronauts. Why would the principal say something like that when it couldn't possibly be true?

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