DECK
Few Millennials knew a world before threat levels were color-coded, there was a War on Terror, and Transportation Security Administration checks were as thorough at they are today. At the time, the oldest millennails to view the collapse of the twin towers were 21-years-old, while the youngest were merely just born.
Caileigh’s Story
On a bench cemented to a busy strip mall sidewalk in New Jersey, this 21-year-old sat sipping her passion fruit tea from Starbucks. She wore neon running shoes, a Victoria Secret top and mirrorred aviators that reflected the cars parked in front of her, but not the eyes that looked behind the lens.
In order for this girl to be who she is, in this moment, she had to be second grader Caileigh Maddison.
Like many millennials, this junior at Morris County Community College, eerily remembers fine details of what happened on September 11, 2001.
Maddison got back from gym class when her teacher attempted to inform the class of what happened on that fall morning.
The teacher asked the class, “do you know what the twin towers are?”
Maddison was the sole hand to lift up. Once called on, Maddison replied, “Yes, my dad works in the one with the antenna.”
“The one with the antenna,” was the North Tower, and it had collapsed at 10:28 a.m. that morning.
Nick’s Story
While the relationship between these two brothers was short in duration, it was not limited in love.
Nick Hussey, junior at Montclair University, first contacted his estranged brother, Tristan, in 2010. The communication between the two was solely through technology.
Hussey and his brother began to keep in touch. Tristan would give him a call before going out on missions.
Hussey’s brother was a Marine stationed in the Middle East.
“He informed us that he was going on leave for a couple weeks to come back home to the states,” Hussey said. “Once he told us this, we began making plans for when he came home. We were looking forward to establishing a brotherly bond.”
The last message Hussey sent his brother was on August 17, 2010. Five days later, in Afghanistan’s Paktya Province, Hussey’s brother, Tristan Southworth, was killed in action while attempting to pull a wounded comrade out of the line of fire. That same August day was also Hussey’s nineteenth birthday.
The first time he saw his brother face-to-face was at his wake.
The aftermath
While the residual affects that were had on both perspective parties were different, the results were both extremely potent in framing these two millennial’s futures.
According to Center for American Progress, “for those who were in middle or high school, or just starting college in 2001, their lives and worldviews were changed by 9/11 in a way that no other event could compare during these formative years.”
Both Maddison and Hussey agreed.
“I definitely feel 9/11 defined us as a generation,” Hussey said. “During the last few months of 2001, we as a nation came together for those who needed help the most and did incredible things for those who lost.”
Maddison believes that it is moments like Sept. 11, that create ripples for years to come, regardless if it is realized at the time or not.
“At first we didn’t understand it fully, at that age, but then you hear about it more–and then you realize what actually happened,” Maddison said. “I think that’s what sparks people to do what they want to do.”
The “spark,” Maddison speaks of, may very well be the thing that has pushed her to persue a career in veteran counseling.
It was this same spark, that convinced Southworth to enlist in the military–and ultimately Hussey also.
“As I got older and learned more about it [Sept. 11], just like Tristan. It gave me more of a drive to enlist,” Hussey said, “Both 9/11 and the whole Tristan situation are definitely a majority of the reason why I decided to join.”
While Hussey’s morning of his brother resulted in action, Maddison’s morning grew to be buckling.
10 long and stressful years came and went where Maddison went without the right support for her depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder which all was a result from her fathers sudden passing and the events in general that took place on that fall morning.
“The real intended victims of this attack were us, not the people in the World Trade Center,” Dr. James Hedtke, historian and political science professor, said. “Terrorists have to play to the living, rather than the dead. That’s the audience.”
Hedtke, who teaches courses on Terrorism, believes that the events of Sept. 11, “shattered the millennials idea of security.”
In 2013, Hussey graduated from Fort Benning, Georgia, the same base his brother graduated from. Currently he is a proud member of the United State’s Army Infantry.
As for Maddison, she will most likely be transferring to Fairleigh Dickenson University in the fall. She is a much different person than she was in the past and has found solace in her fathers passing.
“I don’t think I could be this person without it [her fathers passing] happening,” Maddison said. “Now its more comforting to know he’s watching over me. As crazy as it sounds, it’s almost like one less person to worry about.”
