September 11 Digital Archive

[Untitled]

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I heard about it from a professor.

How has your life changed because of what happened on September 11, 2001?

As someone who was indirectly affected by the tragedies of September 11, 2001, my life was changed in ways similar to the lives of million of Americans were changed. Air travel became a little more complicated, the United States went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we all felt a little less safe. I was 12 when 9/11 happened. I didn't find out about what happened until I got out of school that afternoon. In many ways the events of 9/11 seemed surreal and unreal. The reactions of adults shaped my experience of the tragedy. Adults wanted to protect children from the horribleness of 9/11, but at the same time the process that adults went through to cope with 9/11 became the process that children went through to cope with 9/11. Since I attended a religious school, for almost a month after 9/11 we would routinely pray for the victims of the attacks. We were asked to bring in newspaper clippings from the articles dealing with the attack and US responses to the attack, and political cartoons soon festooned the hallways at my school. We greedily listened to George W. Bush explain how we could come back from this tragedy. Perhaps the most important impact of 9/11/01 is that I started listening. I was part of a big scary world where there were no easy answers.

How will you remember the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks?

With prayer and remembrance. I try to read memories from survivors to confront again the national tragedy. The anniversary of the September 11 attacks is like a national rite of mourning.

Citation

“[Untitled],” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/97078.