I wrote this on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. To realize that it has been almost 20 years since a wound that most of us in DC and NYC still haven’t healed is amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I was doing that day, and I doubt I’ll forget the difference between life before and after 9/11. I can’t remember September 10 other than the fact that it was my best friend’s birthday. But I don’t remember what we said or did. I remember however, every detail of September 11th.

I Cannot Believe It Has Been 10 Years
And of course I mean since that fateful September morning in 2001. I cannot believe it has been that long. Where has time gone?
Bear with me as I share my “what were you doing on that day” story…
Just a few weeks prior, I began my freshman year at Archbishop O'Hara High School in Kansas City, Missouri, and the week before the attacks, my mother was laid off from her job due to cut backs. Sorry, just setting the scene.
(2018 edit): I often hear how beautiful it was that day, and I believe it must’ve been beautiful across the country. Our skies were blue, the temperature was perfect; no one could expect what would come shortly after opening our eyes.
Well, when I found out, I was sitting in my 2nd hour class, Spanish 1, and Mr. Edinger (a football coach) was our substitute. We had a sub because the sophomores were on their annual retreat and my regular teacher was with them. Anyway, I remember talking to my best friend (whose birthday is Sept. 10) Patrice when Mr. Edinger told us the news. We then went across the hall to the American History class and watched with them as the events unfolded.
I know everyone says this, but I really felt like I was watching some Hollywood disaster movie. This could not possibly be real. Then, the second plane hit, and I remember everyone in the classroom shrieking. Professor Johnson, the American History teacher, kept sternly telling us to be quiet so he could hear the newscast, but were were teenagers. And we were scared. What does this mean? Then, the second tower fell, and we were outdone. I remember transitioning from 2nd to 3rd hour in a dazed state. Two girls were hysterically crying, and I later found out that their uncle worked in one of the towers and was killed in the attack.
The rest of the school day was a blur, and soon it was time to go home. I met my brother, who was a senior at the time, at his locker, and he showed me something he’d purchased earlier that morning. Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint” came out on September 11, 2001, and my brother left school to buy it from the Best Buy that was in the neighborhood.
I just read an article on CNN earlier this week about that album and how his sales didn’t waver due to the attacks the way others’ did.
Driving home, Kansas City was a ghost town. Malls were closed, and in fact the only things open were gas stations. My mother and I went to a local gas station, and sat in the line for two hours out of fear that prices would skyrocket overnight.
I am an avid CBS Early Show fan, and I remember that it seemed like for months, the towers were replaced by the hazy, gray cloud of debris left behind in their collapse. Watching the news, and various NY-based television stations, I knew life in America would never be the same.
Ten years later, and the wound is still fresh. We are never to forget the lives that were lost not only in the Twin Towers but the Pentagon and the brave souls of United Flight 93.

I wish I could find the poem I wrote that I read at Sunday service after that fateful day. “United we stand, and together we cry.”

Our country will never be the same. I’m unsure as to whether or not Gen Z pauses the same way their predecessors do when we hear a loud crash or hear planes flying too close to the ground. One day, 9/11 will be a distant memory, just something in the history books. It won’t elicit the same emotion, but the aftereffects will remain. Having to look over our shoulders throughout the day has become the norm. Soon, it’ll be natural and people won’t truly understand why they’re even doing it.