By Ava Jankowski
Zoe Brunson, like many Gen Z students at the University of Maryland, does not know a world before the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I think our generation … has this weird relationship with 9/11 where we have a lot of people in our lives who were seriously impacted by it,” said the senior physics and astronomy major. “But our generation itself has this disconnect where it was this thing that happened, but we didn’t live through it.”
After the country changed 25 years ago, community members reflected on the tragedy’s impact and how it shapes the world around them.
A large portion of UMD’s student body was born after 9/11 and experienced the impacts of the event through a historical perspective.
“The impact of it is definitely relevant, but the specific events itself, people aren’t going about their day thinking about it. Like everything that came after has kind of already been accustomed into the way we were raised,” said Maxwell Eitzmann, a sophomore mechanical engineering major.
Sophomore government and politics and economics major Alex Bierling reflected on a time in high school when he had to interview his parents about 9/11.
“They were all able to say exactly where they were and what they were doing when they learned about it,” Bierling said. “And that’s just something I and our generation can’t really say because obviously we weren’t alive. And for us, it isn’t super far history like World War II or something like that, but it’s not in our memories.”
The UMD community remembers 9/11 in many ways, such as Operation: Stick-It.
Operation: Stick-It is an event hosted by Veteran Student Life. On Thursday, Sept. 10, students, faculty and staff, along with College Park police officers and firefighters, planted 2,977 flags to honor the lives lost on 9/11.
“Community is probably the biggest thing that we’re trying to push here or to demonstrate here,” said Will Jones, the program coordinator for Veteran Student Life at UMD and organizer of Operation: Stick-It.
The event coordinates with TerpVets, the student-run organization that supports active-duty military members, veterans and their families.
As fewer UMD students have personal memories of 9/11, Abbie Bennett, senior reporter for S&P Global and adjunct lecturer at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at UMD, emphasized the importance of continuing to study the attacks and their impacts.
“There are lots of historical events that none of us on this planet today were alive for that still echo today,” Bennett said. “And I think it’s a mistake not to count 9/11 among those.”
Featured Image: UMD students, staff and College Park law enforcement officials plant flags at Operation: Stick-It in honor of the lives lost on 9/11. Photo by Ava Jankowski.