Nothing Was the Same

I’ve never written about my memories of 9/11 because what I experienced does not compare to the tragedy so many other people suffered through that day. I was living far away from New York City and Washington, D.C.; I didn’t narrowly escape death. I didn’t know anyone who was killed. What I experienced was probably what most other Americans felt.

But 25 years on, with more than 100 million in America born after the terror attacks, our collective memory has faded. If people on social media can be ignorant enough to suggest that maybe Osama bin Laden was onto something, and politicians can court the support of an ignoramus who once said “America deserved 9/11,” it’s incumbent on more of us to describe our experiences, to explain how that day shaped our understanding of the world.