Kids born post 9/11 learn your bias

   was four months old when the Twin Towers fell. I don’t remember a single thing that happened. 

According to my mom, she had just dropped me off at daycare and was settling in for a day at work when she found out. Sometime during the day, my dad picked me up from daycare and spent the entire day with his eyes glued to the screen. 

“I can still see you sitting in your activity saucer like it was yesterday,” she said to me. She even has photos of me from that day. She told me that, even though the day meant nothing to me at the time, she knew that it would in the future. 

And of course she was right, I don’t remember any of that. All I know is what other people have told me and what we learned in school, which is the common experience for anyone under the age of 25. 

Growing up, 9/11 was always a day of absolute dread. In middle school the girls used to joke that we needed to wear our waterproof mascara that day because we knew we were going to cry. Of course, the boys would always tell us to toughen up. 

But still, there would always be people who would skip school because they didn’t want to watch the videos of people jumping out of a building.

From elementary school all the way to high school, we spent every anniversary of watching news clips, listening to voicemails sent by people on the planes and the list of names of everyone who was lost, and reading first-hand accounts of people who were in New York. 

That was all we did all day, regardless of the class. 

It wasn’t until high school that they stopped making us recount that day in vivid detail. But by then, the memories had already been burned into my mind and the deep seed of resentment had already been buried in the hearts of many of my classmates. 

The day after Osama bin Laden was killed, I remember many of my classmates rejoicing and cheering for the United States. 

We were only 11. 

In retrospect, I realize how traumatizing all of that sounds. We really educated children about one of the most horrific acts of terrorism in American history since Pearl Harbor by showing them videos of that day long before they could really process what was happening. And I guess there are good and bad things about that. 

For one, I can tell you just about anything regarding that day. I’ve heard far too many stories to count and when I went to visit the 9/11 memorial in 2016, I could feel the weight of that day on my shoulders. 

But at the same time, I have become completely numb to the pain of world-altering events. That might also have something to do with just how many traumatizing events in the United States that I’ve seen in my short life, but the memories I have from learning about 9/11 definitely contribute to that. 

While I remember the patriotism of those that rescued people and fought in Middle East and the lives lost in the attack, I will always see the terror that was experienced that day first. And I’m sure if you were to ask anyone who was there that day and had to experience it all first-hand, that is the last thing they would want us to remember.