There is a lot that can be said about the millennial generation. We are the generation of helicopter parents. We are the generation of the internet. We are the generation of cell phones and texting and selfies. We are progressive. The millennial generation is many things, but the one thing we are, more than anything, is the generation of war.
I know what you’re thinking. There have been wars before this generation. But I, at almost 20 years old, have never known anything but a life at war. I can’t help but think sometimes, what are we fighting for? From Al Qaeda to ISIS, terror has been my childhood. We live in fear. Every time I get on an airplane, there is fear. Every time I go to a movie or a mall, there is fear. Not imminent fear, but in the back of my mind, I always wonder.
So when September 11th comes and all the specials on TV remember the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States and people older than me say things like “you don’t understand. You weren’t old enough to be there”, I get more than a little upset. Because I remember my little four-year-old self-standing behind the couch. I remember my four-year-old little brain knowing that what was on our TV was bad. All I have are flashes. Bits and pieces of memory from the worst day. But I remember.
This year is the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. 15 years of my life, I have lived in the era of fear. I don’t know the TSA before the terror. I don’t know the news and the media before the terror. I don’t know a world before the terror. I have grown up in a world full of war and fear and devastation. I witnessed things like the Boston Marathon bombings and the Sandy Hook shooting. I remember sitting at dinner in the cafeteria last year, watching the headline “More than 100 dead after Paris attacks” scroll across the screen. I watched videos of a truck plow down people at a celebration in Nice.
So when people tell me I’m too young to know, I have a problem with it. I don’t remember that day in September 15 years ago in great detail. You are right. But I have witnessed, every single day since then, the effects of that day. I’ve heard words like Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, ISIS, Syria. I’ve gone through airport security multiple times.
I, and the rest of my generation, have never known a life not filled with war and terror. We are always somewhere fighting. Not a year can go by without some significant horrible event being broadcast on our televisions. We know.
So this year, as we remember 9/11 and the thousands of people that died that day, I feel it. I feel the presence of those attacks every single day. We all do, no matter how old we are. Because we are one country, one people, one world. We all know. We all understand. We all remember.
