It was my third week of my freshman year of college. As I walked out of the dining hall after finishing breakfast at about a quarter to 9 I heard a girl exclaim “oh my God, that’s the World Trade Center!” I thought to myself, wow, what an idiot… after three weeks she just finally noticed where the WTC is? But as I turned my head around to face toward lower Manhattan about 1.5 miles across the Hudson River, I realized there was a gaping hole in the side of the North Tower. My first instinct was to immediately run to my dorm room and get my camera.

I originally made this video around the 5 year anniversary of the attacks. It’s edited from footage and pictures my father, college TV station (which I later became the General Manager of) and I took.

On one hand there’s no need to dwell on the past, but on the other, as cliche as it is to say, it’s important to make sure we never forget. I think one of the saddest memories is that of all the “missing” persons posters plastered on utility poles, bus stops and walls throughout the NYC area. That at the time these people’s loved ones and friends still had hope that their brother, sister, son, daughter, father, mother, partner, and friend was still out there somewhere, simply “missing” and would somehow be found. What else can you do when someone never came home one day but somehow look for them?

Although they had to know the tragic truth in the back if their mind even if they had not yet allowed themselves to accept it.

I feel that at least there is some sort of closure now that the new 1 WTC is finally looming over the lower Manhattan skyline