09/11/2026
25 years later, September 11th is still one of those days that feels impossible to forget.
I was in 7th grade English class when we first heard the news. We watched the second plane hit, and then watched the towers collapse live on television. Eventually, our school dismissed us early, but the images from that morning — and the feeling of realizing the world had suddenly changed — have stayed with me ever since.
Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, that day has always felt especially somber. Flight 93 went down only about 40 miles from us in Shanksville, where 40 passengers and crew members showed unimaginable courage and fought back, preventing an even greater tragedy. Their bravery is a part of 9/11 that has always hit close to home for so many of us in this area.
For our family, the impact continued in the years that followed. Six years later, after graduating high school, Tim joined the military and went on to serve overseas in the fight against terrorism. He became part of a generation whose lives and service were forever shaped by what happened that morning.
And as a former paramedic, I will always have a special place in my heart for the first responders who ran toward the devastation while everyone else was trying to escape. I know what it means to answer a call on someone’s worst day — but the courage shown by the firefighters, police officers, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, and others that morning is almost impossible to comprehend.
Today, we remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost, the families who were forever changed, the heroes of Flight 93, the first responders who gave everything, those who became sick in the years afterward, and every service member who sacrificed in the wars that followed.
September 11th changed an entire generation.
May we continue to say their names, tell their stories, honor their sacrifice, and never allow the passage of time to make us forget.
🇺🇸 Never Forget. 9•11•2001 🇺🇸
Where were you when you first heard the news? Do you remember what you were doing that morning?
— Kayla, MDC
