It was a cold, rainy Wednesday morning when we gathered in Trinity Church on Broadway, nestled snugly in the pews, exchanging memories from a clear, blue day seven years prior.
By the end of our discussion, it was clear--even though we were students in Lower Manhattan, it was still difficult for most of us to feel closely connected to our generation's day of infamy--9/11.
I had gone to visit Ground Zero several times before, but this time it would be my first visit to the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, a project of the September 11th Families' Association. The center features videos and artifacts of the center and from the tragedy.
The tour, however, started outside near the pit, where construction continues on Freedom Tower. Although much work has been done on what was for a time a 16-acre hole, the breadth of their footprint is still mammoth.
Our volunteer tour guide was John Henderson, who also works for NYU’s graduate enrollment department. He carried a binder of his favorite photographs of the tower, that he and his wife had taken throughout the years.
As we moved around the perimeter of the site and learned the chilling details of that day, it was hard not to become emotional. When we finally entered the visitor center, I had to choke back tears as I stared up at a wall with photos of those who were killed that day. Henderson made it a point to remind us not to soften our language here--no one was "lost," as we often say. They were murdered in an act of terrorism. Though it isn't easy to quantify and understand large numbers, seeing some of the 3,000 faces began to bring things into perspective.
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