I never thought I had been profoundly impacted by 9/11. Sure, there was that time where I lost a few days of pay because there were no flights for me to get back home. But other than that, I've just thought of it is some emotionally remote historical event, much in the vein of the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the Tiananmen massacre: events that have undoubtedly directly impacted many, many people... but just not me. I comprehend the fact that many died (and wish for the sake of them and their families that it had not happened) but that's the extent of how I relate to it.

Now, I have never been acutely aware of socio-political world events. I always find myself a little more ignorant than I'd like to be but always unable to do anything about it. Being this uninformed, it's easy to be in my own little insulated world, unaffected by global events. But today, I realized that 9/11 has indeed changed the way I think. As I sat at my computer, I heard a loud roaring noise outside. I easily identified it as an aircraft, but my first thoughts raced to rather macabre images. Could it be some plane flying just a little too low, a little too close--perhaps about to crash? I pictured a huge explosion as the plane screeched toward the ground. I did realize how unlikely it was that, of all places, Milwaukee would be a terrorist target. There are much more interesting cities around, and this I know for sure. But still, my rationality was overruled by my insecurity. I know had it not been for 9/11, I probably would not have thought these things. Turns out it was just some really, really loud jet: fun to watch but no huge bursts of flames.