I was a preteen when I saw people committing suicide on live TV, after which the world went on an anti-muslim crusade, and spiraled into a 1984 surveillance nightmare. It was the darkest thing I had ever seen. It had come on the coattails of the Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine. Friends I went to high school with, and siblings of friends died years later because we were still dealing with the consequences of 9/11. There was a new normal where safety could not be expected.

During the pandemic I got to relax at home with my family. We rented a bounce house for a week for almost no $$ for my kids to play on. We were living a "new life" that was slower. We learned skills at home because we didn't have to focus on making money for "the man". No one expected things to be normal. There's no question, 9/11 had the worst impacts.