Through the eyes of a New Yorker and someone who lives two miles for the World Trade Center, experiencing Sept. 11 was an emotional roller coaster. From shock and chaos to the calm after the storm and uncertainty, 9/11 represented a change in how New Yorkers carried out our everyday lives, how important emergency personnel is to our city and how crucial unity is in a time of crisis.
The daily lives of New Yorkers changed the day after 9/11. We no longer felt the sense of invincibility when going about our everyday lives. Never did it cross my mind that someone could go to work and all of sudden see a plane directly outside their office window heading for the building. Now, when I take the subway, I cannot rule out the possibility of the subway being attacked. This is not just something that I feel, because when there are minor incidents in the city, such as construction problems, the first thing that comes to mind for those who lived through 9/11 in New York is terrorism. It has caused New Yorkers to have a more sensitive reaction to minor disturbances that occur in the city.
The biggest change after 9/11 was realizing how important it is to have good emergency personnel. Since then, I not only have an unquestionably positive view of emergency personnel, but I view them as heroes. When the attacks on the Trade Center occurred, thousands of police and fire fighters had to be deployed close to bridges into Manhattan as a safety precaution and to prevent chaos throughout the entire city. The fact that they were able to manage such a difficult task speaks to how important emergency personnel are to the city, something that I realized much more after that day. It was their heroism, fearlessness and passion that allowed New York to return to relative normalcy a day later, which could have been much worse had it not been for emergency personnel's immediate reaction to the crisis.
Lastly, the way in which we were able to unite during such a shocking moment is something that I will always remember from that day. I witnessed unity in my own high school. Since I went to school in the Bronx, which is north of Manhattan, a majority of my school classmates were not able to get back into Manhattan because all the highways were closed.
With few options available, my school was only able to offer the building as a place for students with no way home to sleep. Fortunately, several attending students were from the suburbs, and everyone found a classmate's house to spend the night at. What was most amazing was I and many others had to stay with classmares we never really associated with. Yet in a time of crisis, we reached out to each other and not one single person had to stay overnight at the school after the days unsettling events.
We will all remember 9/11 for different reasons, and each of us carries different emotions toward the events that happened on that day. Being up close to the event and living through it has changed my perspective, as I am sure the event changed your own.
Tyler Marcus is a junior majoring in history and is a member of College Republicans of Madison. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
