Almost twenty years. That's how long it's been since 9/11 and this year's anniversary seems different. Sure enough there have been the flood of retrospectives, "as we watched" documentaries, and updates from various parties involved, but somehow it seems more detached. To most, "Never Forget" has turned into just another date to note as an Important American Event; it seems that only for those who experienced it firsthand or lost someone that day is it an indelible mark on their soul.

I watched something similar happen even on the first anniversary, as I had just moved to North Carolina to start grad school. I was staying in a dorm with all grad or international students and sat alone in the TV room that morning and cried throughout the ceremony while everyone else went about their day as normal. I hadn't known anyone who died, but growing up in New Jersey, having a cousin who lived through it on the ground that day, and other tangential contacts made it more real to me. But for people who were from other countries or other regions of the US, 9/11 was done in their minds since the personal connection wasn't there. UNC's only public acknowledgement that day was a short ceremony on campus to honor the Chapel Hill alumnae that had been killed in the Twin Towers. Obligatory mention, then move on.

Now there is, essentially,  an entire generation that have no firsthand memories of that day, watching in terror and horror, not knowing the towers would collapse, the awful death toll, the months lower Manhattan was basically shut down, and all of the ripple effects that led to where we are today, including Afghanistan and Iraq. I know major events are supposed to fade into the history books, in the same way that I don't react to learning about WWII as if I had lived it, or been alive when JFK was assassinated.

I should take it as a sign that things are proceeding apace. Focus on the now while remembering that day privately, keeping all those still affected in my heart, and know that 9/11 really has crossed into history for the great majority. It's time.