Think about your life 10 years ago. Some of you were in second grade. Some of you were in the same jobs you are today. Maybe since then you’ve changed careers, changed majors or changed states. You might have had your first kiss or first kid. Met your soul mate or lost your job.
It’s not a stretch to say our nation and our world have changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Our culture is different.
We all carry cell phones and check Facebook. We drive hybrids and download books. Touchscreens are everywhere. 3-D technology sits in our living room. We’re different.
For the older reader, this might seem dramatic, frightening and troublesome. Things aren’t like they used to be. You have to take off your shoes at the airport. People text at the supermarket and nothing says “Made in America,” anymore. It’s a different world that hardly resembles the 1980s or
1990s, certainly not the 1950s.
For those of us who were young on 9/11, the view from a decade later is quite different. I remember 9/11 vividly. I was in sixth grade and I can tell you where I was, who I talked to and what homework I did that night. I remember everything about 9/11 and what happened after. I remember the fear and the questions.
What I don’t remember is what everything was like before. I don’t really remember what it was like when no one had a cell phone or when we didn’t have to go through invasive security screenings to walk onto an airplane. I don’t remember news before the ticker at the bottom of the screen.
I don’t remember what it was like when we didn’t have soldiers overseas.
The general consensus among most people is that we’re worse off than we were 10 years ago. I’d wager to say most middle-aged people think they’re watching the end of the world.
But from the perspective of someone who grew up in a post-9/11 America, things don’t look so bad.
Sure, we aren’t quite as prosperous, and we’re always a little suspicious of the person sitting next to us on an airplane, but those challenges have made us stronger, not weaker.
We’re better off for having grown up in more difficult times. We’re developing a tolerance for rough years.
Our parents lived through a great era, but it also made them weak. The Dow Jones drops 200 points, they’re scared. We shrug it off.
Dysfunctional political leaders? So what? An uptick in unemployment? It’s a shame, but they’ll find jobs.
It’s been said every generation thinks the one after it is the end of it all. You don’t have to look any further than those “right track/wrong track” polls to know there is a lot of that going around today.
You might think we’re barreling toward a century of decline. A lot of people do. Don’t believe it.
Older Americans might remember 9/11 as a dramatic shift from one America to another, but the Millennials don’t.
We remember the heroism and bravery. It was a lesson in what really matters in life. Our parents were scared about a brave new world, but we didn’t know the old one.
When the 10th anniversary of 9/11 arrives Sunday, you might be tempted to reflect on what some people have called a “lost decade.”
Instead, consider this. My first real memory of the character of this nation and the first memories of many other people my age are the images of firefighters and police officers running into a burning building.
Our Standard & Poor’s rating might not be AAA anymore, but our future lies in the hands of a generation that learned on 9/11 the right thing to do is to run into the fire.
It’s hard to imagine that generation won’t engineer another American Century of dominance.
