I am 22 years old. When the planes hit the towers I was 11 years old. Yesterday, as I was taking photographs for a remembrance and veteran appreciation event, I realized that I am part of the generation that did not know a world before September 11th, 2001. Sure you can tell us how picture perfect the '50s were, and how great the '80s were. We can watch Thriller and krimp our hair until it falls out in an attempt to recreate "what was once good." You can tell us that MTV used to actually play videos of music and that the whole country tuned in for the Ed Sullivan show (yeah right. nothing is that popular. you guys were weird). AND APPARENTLY GAS USED TO BE 5 CENTS A GALLON. You can also tell us that now everything is different. "Everything has changed." "Nothing is how it used to be." Well I was zero through eleven when things were how they used to be. I was focused on two things: growing up, and not letting anyone steal my Spice Girls key chain off my backpack.
The day the planes hit the towers, my social studies class was about to learn about Islam for the first time in my educational history. Up until that point my schooling had been white America and ancient cultures. I didn't have the opportunity to know anything about the outside world before 9/11. That day was my introduction. Although we didn't spend any class time on the curriculum that day, and were instead evacuated from our campus (near another suspected target for terrorists), I learned more from the reactions of the grown ups around me that day than any class, or history book, or even my history degree has ever taught me.
You can all say that that day changed everything, but the reality is that that day opened my eyes to and defined the world as i know it. This is my world. The world of a war against an idea. A world where firefighters have always been hero's and where we watch fictional serial killers instead of the Ed Sullivan Show. A world where MTV is about teen pregnancies and gasoline is running out. My world is a world where soldiers in Iraq use the motors of their Humvee's to heat up beefaroni and stay warm in the winter and where a college degree will get you about as far as four years of experience in the workplace will.
The truth is, I didn't get it. I didn't get what we were fighting for because I didn't know what we lost on that day. I was too young. This is the reality of my world. Meeting veterans and soldiers and a World War II veteran made me realize that we really are fighting for something. Even though I will never understand how it was before, I still experience the fear and stress of those older than me who were aware before as well as now after. I have never been so happy to have my camera. The portraits that I took of the Army Vets, Marines, Navy officers, and even the young boys aspiring to grow up to fight for their country, inspired me to be a prouder and better American in this apparent time of fear and anxiety in our country's history. Yesterday, my camera was truly my lens into the lives of a group of people that I knew nothing about.
I plan to use this tool to continue to inquire and experience a completely unfamiliar world that surrounds me every day.
