Last year, on the tenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, my classmates and I held a reunion at Stuyvesant High School, the place where we were, just a few blocks away from the towers on that fateful day.
I re-watched the video of our commemoration and open mic event recently, once again proud to be a part of such an impressive group of young professionals, but also because the tenth anniversary was such an important day of reflection for the nation. Where we had been, where we were now and how the tragedy affected the trajectories of our lives.
Now, as the new tower rises, One World Trade Center, gleaming and beautiful and symbolic (but a structure I suspect New Yorkers will always call The Freedom Tower), I’m reminded that next year will be special as well, as the tower stands completed and we are once again able to reflect and remember.
But then I thought — what about this year?
One World Trade Center is viewed from the 72nd floor of Four World Trade Center on September 7, 2012 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
An American flag is placed on a name of a victim on the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial during the tenth anniversary ceremonies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (David Handschuh-Pool/Getty Images)
The 9/11 Memorial is viewed during a ceremony for recovery workers and first responders on the10-year anniversary of the formal end of cleanup operations at Ground Zero on May 30, 2012. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Attendees of the 9/11 Memorial can be seen from the 90th story of One World Trade Center on April 30, 2012 in New York City. (Lucas Jackson-Pool/Getty Images)
A man pauses during a tribute at the 9/11 Memorial for recovery workers and first responders on the10-year anniversary of the formal end of cleanup operations at Ground Zero on May 30, 2012. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Eddie Reyes places an American flag on the names of fifteen of his colleagues in the New York Police Department Emergency Service Unit who were killed on September 11, 2001 during a first responders wreath-laying ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial on September 20, 2011. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Firefighters attend a memorial service for firefighters killed on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on lower Manhattan at the Firemen’s Monument. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Former President George W. Bush, First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barak Obama the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial during the tenth anniversary ceremonies. (Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images)
The Twin Towers. (Keith Goldstein)
I think the legacy of 9/11 will be many different things to so many Americans, but I can’t help but think that now more than ever it is important to take time every single year to remember — to remember the lives that were lost, to remember the hate that could rationalize such a tragedy, but most importantly, to remember the unyielding spirit of unity that took hold of the country.
The contrast is particularly stark as another election season plods along with all the elegance of a sputtering car on its last breath. The country has never been more polarized, opponents are increasingly demonized with lazy and dangerous rhetoric, and to say the U.S. is fractured would elicit merely apathetic or despondent nods and head shakes from most people.
That reality puts into focus the goals of the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks. One imagines they were eclipsed farther than their wildest imaginations.
Our country was wounded and temporarily came together, yet to this day, shock waves are felt from their actions. In many ways, we have not recovered.
That’s the thing about reflection, though — depending on your point of view, you can take good or bad from the memories you recall. But there is hope. I would argue that the legacy of 9/11 is still moldable clay — hardening but pliable.
When history books are cracked open a generation from now, unity will follow tragedy, and then a painful decade will follow afterwards. But maybe the end of the chapter, the final legacy of 9/11, can be the strength and quiet resolve of a nation — a nation that righted itself, honored the heroism of everyday citizens and never, ever forgot to mark a single anniversary of September 11, 2001.
Adrian Carrasquillo is social media manager and a web producer for NBC Latino.
WATCH: Incredible Visualization of One World Trade Center building:
