Twenty years ago I was about to turn 20-years-old and a college student.  I was newly engaged and my now husband was my personal aide in school.  The 9/11 attacks happened while we were on the way to school that morning.  We had no idea what happened until we walked into the office where I was allowed to get extra time to get my homework done due to my severe cerebral palsy.  Everyone was quiet and in shock.  My tutor asked if we had heard what happened and we said no.  She told us and led us to the television.  We watched in shock as the towers were on fire and eventually fell.  It felt like I was watching a movie.  I didn’t know how to process it and trying to get my work done was stressful.

As time went on and I watched it all unfold, I got emotional. And my birthday 48 hours later was somber despite my turning twenty.  Everything was somber for a while and the skies were so quiet from the airplanes being grounded.  We didn’t know what was going to happen next.  It was a very hard and scary time.  My husband’s friend from grade school was one of the casualties of that day.

But what I remember most, except for a few conspiracy theorists who were ignorant, and still are, about the attacks, the country actually came together.  People were kinder. Drivers had more empathy for each other.  Definitely a total contrast from today’s current reaction to the pandemic.

Children got comforted and observed the adults coming together to help each other deal with the trauma.  Oh how I long for that type of empathy and compassion again.  Social media is probably going to be the destroyer of the world since it allows people to become even more ingrained in their beliefs and argue with everyone.  It is now spilling over into the real world.

Tennessee teen talking about grandma who died of Covid heckled by adults at school board meeting.