I had just started college when 9/11 happened. I had, for all intents and purposes, just started thinking of myself as an adult.
I remember that day very well. I woke up and it seemed like the world had ended. Remembering that my father had business in/near the Pentagon, I joined the hundreds trying to reach family and make sure they were okay.
The day ended, but our problems surely didn’t.
These days, it seems like I’ve basically spent my adult life living in 9/11. It’s everywhere. It’s image is called up all the time, for reasons personal, political, religious, and other. I understand this. 9/11 was a tragedy. It was a horrible event, a horrible day, and began a horrible span of time.
But I am tired of living in 9/11. It has been almost a decade, and we are still caught up in it. We are still talking about a post-9/11 world, but our post-9/11 world seems awfully bound to an eternal replay of those days. It’s time for us, as a nation, to move on.
Tomorrow is 9/12. I would really like to try living there for a while. Wouldn’t you?