We had an ice cream social the night before, and I couldn't find my best friend anywhere there, so I had just shrugged it off and figured I'd see her in the morning. That Tuesday morning, I woke up to a dark room, which was unusual because there was always some kind of light in the room. Got out of bed and walked out into the hallway to find Mom sitting on her bed crying as she's looking at the TV and Dad hadn't gone to work. Couldn't understand why there was a building practically on fire, and we were pretty much ushered out of the house to the bus stop.
Went to school with my brothers, perplexed, and I noticed my friend wasn't there, but everyone just wanted to talk about what was going on. My fourth-grade teacher had a smaller, older TV she had set up in the classroom that we after recess gathered around to watch the news, the replays of the plane crashing into the tower. My peers were upset including the birthday girl (meanwhile my dumb sheltered ass still doesn't fully understand what's happening), but we were all in awe at what we were seeing.
My friend wouldn't return for a couple days, but she was different. She was from New York, had family there who were in the vicinity, so it was that personal to her. She had changed as a person as a result, was a bit more angry than she used to be, and apparently knew more about what was going on in the world than I ever did. To me, seeing that drastic change was the casualty. And in hindsight, I was probably a jackass for celebrating the Arizona Diamondbacks winning over the New York Yankees that World Series, because you honestly couldn't blame the Yankees for being disheartened, especially when they were doing pretty well prior to 9/11.
Hilariously enough, a few days after 9/11 happened, I would get my first stitches for being a dumbass. I only remember it happened afterwards because through the blur in the emergency room lobby, I saw Bin Laden on the TV, and I was allowed to tell the class how I got injured the previous night after we did the memorial ceremony.
While I don't believe 9/11 was the start of the decline in culture (the 2000s wasn't all that bad until the recession hit tbh), I think had it not happened, we'd be in a much radically-different world right now. But I think attacks on American soil would've occurred no matter what year, they just so happened to pick that Tuesday morning in 2001, and we're paying for it, and probably will continue to pay for it for the foreseeable future.
Also it's sobering to realize there are voting young adults who were born post-9/11, and they're going to be able to legally drink in another year. Feels bad, man.
