By Kimberly Tan
Below is an article I published in The Huffington Post two years ago on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
Today, the United States pauses to commemorate the 11-year anniversary of one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. soil. With tragic memories of the over 3,000 innocent lives lost and a raging war on terror, September 11 has made an impact on our nation that has forever changed the face of not just New York or the United States, but the world itself.
I was only five on September 11, 2001 when I heard that the United States was attacked. I still remember waking up that morning to see the television airing footage of the smoking Word Trade Centers, the stunned reporters continually repeating that the United States was under attack. My mom watched the footage, face ashen as she faintly commented on how she was planning a family trip for next summer to New York City in order to see the Twin Towers. Needless to say, that trip never happened.
Of course, even as a first-grader, I was saddened by the news that people had died — I wrote in my diary, “Today was a very sad day” with a crude sketch of a frowning face, the limit of my artistic ability. Unfortunately, at the time, that was the extent of my understanding of what happened. I didn’t comprehend the true enormity of the situation and how monumental this attack was, nor could I fathom the impact it would provoke. I couldn’t recognize that September 11 wasn’t just another news report about a car accident or an unarmed robbery, that it was one of the greatest calamities our nation has ever faced.
Click here for the full article- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimberly-tan/growing-up-in-the-shadow-_1_b_5780154.html
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