How Does A College Remember 9/11 When Its Students Don’t?

Across the country people are remembering 9/11. MTSU hosted a ceremony urging attendees to never forget, but many students have no memory in the first place.

MTSU freshman Anna Yuhas was a year old when 9/11 happened. She explains, for people her age 9/11 is not so much a memory but the beginning of a culture they’ve lived in ever since.  

“I don’t know, I guess it’s impacted me because I’m used to the moments of silence,” she says. “And it’s always a remembrance day every single year… I never knew it didn’t exist.”

While Yuhas says she recognizes the importance of 9/11 to the nation’s history, she doesn’t feel a big personal connection to it.

As more people grow up without memories of the tragedy, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Huber says 9/11 commemorations need to continue, so younger people learn what it stands for.

“That there are people who are willing to risk their lives every day for people that they don’t even know…. And that spirit, that compassion, that consciousness of our country is very profound,” he says.

In the closing ceremony, Huber asks guests to stand as a single bugle plays taps, a song he calls “the saddest sound [he knows.]”