I remember waking up in the morning with joy. The first thought some people have when waking up is, “I wonder what will happen today”, or “I hope today is a good day.” Today was my birthday.

I was 8 years old. My mother took me to school, where I expected to be greeted with birthday wishes.
No one could predict what would happen around 8:45 am. When I think back, it reminds me of our generation before, and what they witnessed during the Civil Rights era, people asking questions such as, “where were you when…”.

Where were you when the country went quiet on September 11, 2001?

Former President George W. Bush had been reading to children at Emma T. Booker Elementary School. Some had been scheduled to be on one of the flights that had been hijacked.

I had just turned 8. I was a young boy who couldn’t understand why people were scared, upset and devastated. I could not understand what the people who were jumping from the towers were doing.
Instead of thinking about what presents I would be receiving, I was left in confusion. I remember the expression on my grandmother’s face; scared, yet she remained calm.

Looking at some news anchors during the time now, I noticed the same expression. It puzzled me. How can someone remain calm when the world, as we knew it around that time, could be at an end? I feel, that it’s part of human nature, to want to appear calm for others, to be strong for others. That is one of the reasons that I chose journalism as a career path, because I want to be strong for everyone.

We associate this date with a tragedy. Nearly 3,000 lives were taken on this date. We see it today, where there is conflict between the police and citizens. But, on this date, how can you ignore the fact that everyone was pitching in? We mourned, we carried that weight, but we also got right back up and rebuilt.

I don’t associate my birthday with a tragedy.  When you think about how quick we got back up, and got to work, it is amazing. John Stewart had made a comment about 9/11, stating, “The view from out the window of my apartment was the World Trade Center. What the view is now is the Statue of Liberty”. This symbolism shows that we are ready for a new start.

There will be no tears on this face. There will be no more mourning. It has been 14 years since the day. If we look back from then to now, we’ve accomplished so much.

Of course, we still have work to do. We are not perfect human beings. We are just good enough. So, let us not think of this day as the day we lost, but the day we were reborn. There have been many tragedies in the past, but like we’ve demonstrated before, we will prevail. And it’s because of this that we know that we can.