I'll never forget where I was when...
Meh. You might.
Write an essay about something happening in your life during a completely unrelated major news event. For example, maybe on September 11, 2001, you were whacked out on pain meds after getting your wisdom teeth out and missed the whole thing, or, maybe you were giving birth during a presidential election, or scuba diving when a celebrity died or you slept through an earthquake. Think hard and don’t necessarily go for the obvious news-event-life-story combo; hold out or a weird one.