Moms Talk: Echoes of 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was in gym class playing tennis under a clear, blue sky when the first announcement came over the school's loudspeaker at my high school telling students that two planes had hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City. 

The rest of the school day was a wash as some teachers took up discussions in class about what had happened, and others attempted to quiet the whispering between students and carry on as normal. 

It wasn't until I got home from school and turned on the television that I first saw the images of the planes hitting the towers and then watched as they fell, over and over on the nightly news.

In the 10 years since, it seems like the lives of so many people my age and younger have been shaped by that day.

I knew people that signed up for military service soon after, and the subsequent wars that followed in Afghanistan and then Iraq seemed to define my last years of high school and the first years of college. The events of 9/11 have played a role in the economy I stepped out into after graduating, and led to a generational desire for a message of hope, and the election of Barack Obama as president.

Today on Moms Talk, let's discuss how the 10 years after 9/11 has affected your children. How did you discuss the day's tragic events with them, and how do you think it influenced their thinking? How has the world changed for them from the one you grew up in? How has that day influenced their future.

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