Exactly 20 years ago today, the events of 9/11 changed our country forever. It’s crazy to me that something that feels like yesterday to all of the adults around me is something I can only recall stories of. The changes that occurred because of 9/11 (airport security, American armed forces over seas, big surveillance) are normal to me because I never had the chance to know otherwise. Yet the collective feeling of fear is something I will never truly understand.
I was merely 15 months old on September 11, 2001 and the majority of college students nowadays weren’t even alive when it occurred. We rely on our history teachers, our parents, and our older siblings to tell us what living through such a destructive day (both literally and emotionally) was truly like.
Visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York is the closest I have ever gotten to truly understanding that day. The somber mood and the collective understanding of silence was eerily comforting. Not a single person in the 110,000 square foot, underground museum was willing to break the quiet.
It’s haunting really – knowing that you’re simply an observer watching everyone around you connect without a word. Yet, I understood. I didn’t have to remember each detail of that day to see the pain in their eyes, the sadness in their hearts, and the darkness that was within the rubble. The stories of that day were displayed on their faces:
- The first responders who knew exactly what they were walking into and did it anyway.
- The husbands and wives who sent their significant others to work that morning expecting them to be home for dinner.
- The parents who ran to pick their kids up from school because they didn’t know what else could be coming.
- The children who were too young to understand why their parents never came home that day.
20 years have not made the feelings of that day any less real for those who lived through it. And even though many of us didn’t, we are not naive to the sentiments. Today, we stand with you in remembering the 2,996 men and women who lost their lives that day. We thank our first responders, we pray for the loved ones lost, we comfort those who remember every moment, and we too, will never forget.