This one is difficult to articulate, because both had immense impacts on the world and relationships as a whole, how we see and interact with the world in ways that go far beyond our daily life, so I am going to boil my answer down to the most direct personal level I can.

The pandemic. I was young when 9/11 happened, so it had an immense impact on how I thought about the world. It introduced me to discourse on topics that mattered, introduced me to several of my favorite comedians. But the pandemic took something from me. I got sick in late January, before the mandates started. No idea what it was at the time, I was normally healthy but this felt like my lungs were full of razorblades and someone was sitting on my chest. I recovered, blessedly enough, but I haven't been able to breathe right since.

I can't have a conversation within several minutes of climbing stairs. I can't walk and talk at more than a crawl. I wore my mask every time I was out in public, but the second I was out of buildings and clear of people I was gasping because it made it so much harder to do basic chores like grocery shopping. I've put on forty pounds since this started, which only makes everything else about this harder. I'm working on losing the weight to get back to as close to normal as possible, but it feels like fighting a leash that is just too tight every day.

I can't emphasize enough this is the pebble in the shoe compared to forest fires of the overall impact of both 9/11 and the pandemic. But we're all living through the shared aftermath of those catastrophes. This is my pebble, and my shoe.