The Post-9/11 Generation Reflects on Impact

It's been eight years since Sept. 11, 2001 and many high school seniors were just kids back then, still in elementary school.

Students at Dallas' School for the Talented & Gifted were only 9 or 10 years old, but the event was such a significant part of their lives, that they remember it vividly.

"I was in fourth grade and the principal walked in and told the teachers to turn on the news," said Miguel Cazarez. "We had a little small TV, and we all just sat there and watched the events."

 "When that happened, me, and my mom and my sister we all just got in one room," said Jessica McGee. "It might have been dead silent, but we all knew that we were just close."

"Some teachers were crying … some teachers were calling family members," said Jasmine Price.

They were old enough to understand the gravity of the day, and now they say their generation has been heavily influenced by those historic events.

"The pictures to me, the stories and the families that lost people, those are still very emotional to me," said Lisa Kraynick.

"Even though it was really tragic, at the same time, personally in my family, our view on the Mideast has broadened, like my sister for instance, she's in college at UNT and she's studying Arabic."

The students share an intense patriotism, and they said they are more aware of the world and their place in it than their parents were.

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