It was only when I first visited New York in 2009 that the events of ten years ago really hit me in the gut. Seeing the Tiles for America and Staten Island memorials really brought home the personal stories of those directly affected.
My thoughts are with all those who lost someone on this day in 2001.
Clear-Minded Creative 
2 replies on “This was, in a way, a hopeful place”
It’s true that actually being in New York (and the financial district more specifically) really brings home the enormity of what took place in 2001. When the events first started unfolding, as a still-naive 17 year old I didn’t even know what the World Trade Centre was – it was a landmark that had never come onto my radar.
While it was obviously shocking, it was still impossible to properly relate to. When the London bombings happened in 2005, then I began to understand that feeling of invasion and attack (despite being nowhere near London and knowing nobody who might be caught up in it).
Visiting New York in 2006, however, really brought it home. Even 5 years on there was an ‘atmosphere’ – possibly self-generated, but nevertheless tangible – that helped contextualise the pictures that had become so familiar on television, and yet still so foreign. So I can imagine how real it must still have felt a further three years after, and how it must still feel now too.
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Very well put Paul, thanks for the comment. I was a bit older than you when it happened and of course I knew immediately it was a huge thing with a massive impact worldwide but sometimes the humanity gets lost somewhere within the rolling news footage if you’re not personally involved.
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