We could’ve never conceptualized how the events of 9/11 would shape our development over the next ten years. Many of us were around ten years old and had no concept of terrorists or the World Trade Center. We just thought it was a plane crash, saddening but not world changing. We couldn’t have been more wrong.
It seems as though the one thread that remained constant throughout our formative years was 9/11. It never faded in the ways other staples of our youth did; if anything, with each year the events of 9/11 became further entrenched in our lives.
With each year that passed the events of 9/11 hit home with an ever-increasing vigor. In the beginning years our youth did not allow for an understanding of the event outside of a statistical account. We knew the death toll and it made us distraught; however, we simply had no way of grasping the extent of the pain that was founded that day. And while we may never be able to grasp the totality of the agony experienced, without a doubt, with each year that passes and as we experience more personal losses, we find ourselves with a greater understanding of what happened that day.
We take time to remember 9/11 on occasions beyond memorial services; thoughts of 9/11 have permeated through every aspect of our lives. For some, the random discovery of the three numbers together, whether it is on a clocks or call logs, has the power to stop us dead in our tracks to reflect. We cannot watch a passing fire-truck, an American flag, or even hear the word patriotism without our reflections on that day being conjured up.
Even the political fracturing of our nation today prompts a reflection of the immediate months following 9/11. There was once a time where everyone was on the same page. It was a rarity to see a car not waving an American flag. The buzzwords that fill today’s airwaves of conservative and liberal did not matter. Even rarer was it to find politicians in disagreement over the direction of the nation. Our nation today is foreign from the unity felt back then. Although the tragedy was immense it brought us together in a capacity greater than anything has since.
Looking forward, our generation will never be able to remove itself from 9/11. It’s impossible for many of us to remember the pre-9/11 world. 9/11 demonstrated the human capacity for evil and the possibility of unity in each of us.
We should never forget the events of that day not only because of the enormity of the tragedy, but because it was one of the defining moments in the development of each of us.
