For Generation 9/11, there was a time Before everything changed. Then there was the time After. There exists that dividing line in our lives.
For the most part, it's a line that marks the end of a protected childhood and the tougher, scarier territory that comes from growing up. And it's not a coincidence it was drawn in the blue skies above lower Manhattan, on a Tuesday morning 10 years and one day ago.
The next generation will not have a Before. It will have only lived in the After. It won't remember life without the fear that flooded our society after the attacks; it will not have images of falling towers so indelibly sealed in its mind; it will not have known a time of American invincibility that could never crumble into dust.
In a few years, new students at this university will have lived through that day of terror, but may not know the line it became. Our generation was made by it. Who we are as a people is defined by the difference between Before and After.
With that in mind, we present this collection of stories from members of Generation 9/11, one forged in burning jet fuel above Manhattan, cooled by FDNY hoses and discovered beneath the rubble of two towers and a nation.
These are our stories. This is Generation 9/11.
Lack of reflection troubles vet
Muslim life in post-9/11 America
Professors talk 9/11 effects on student life
Madison remembers victims of terror
