09/11/2026
Today stands out for me mostly because it was a day of innocence for America that will be forever lost to time and the memories of those who lived it. This was the closest event in my life to something that previous generations must have felt when the gravity of war or famine or economic collapse came.
In the late 80’s I had the opportunity to visit the World Trade Center building and NYC for the first time with my family. We visited after attending a gymnastics camp in Pennsylvania.
My parents knew a stock broker who was working on the trade room floor, so we got the chance to see things up close. If you want to know what that was like, watch one of the best comedy movies of all time, Trading Places (1983). I’m grateful for that experience and crazy memory.
September 11, 2001 was the beginning of my sophomore year at Penn State. I sat in the morning lecture of a linguistics class when we first heard and saw news of the twin towers being hit by an airplane. The room fell silent as my professor and us became dumbfounded. We thought the worst kind of accident had just happened; then came the second airplane impact and classes were immediately dismissed for the day. Being a large campus not terribly far from NYC, there were many students and faculty who were directly affected by the loss of life.
A lot changed in the country from that point, and it is easy to draw a line between pre and post 9/11 American daily life. Though time continues, feelings of nostalgia and fond memories of a life gone by sometimes linger.
Life can be precarious and tomorrow is not guaranteed, so let’s be kind to one another and do things with joy in our hearts for time that we have.