Maybe it was less the actual event than it was experiencing the same collective moment on a shared timeline. The time before symbolizing an era when we were young and carefree and innocent. Though maybe it was never like this. Maybe I'm over idealizing life before 9/11. Maybe 9/11 made us all realize what was always there.
My experience of New York falls in the time after -- my first trip to NYC was a couple years after 9/11 when there was still a huge hole in the ground. Time had passed but the memory was still so fresh. We were still hopeful; still at the beginning of a new timeline; still believing we could put it all behind us and be better people; a stronger country. I don't remember a New York with two twin towers and yet that's still what I see whenever I look at the skyline. I always see that empty space. I always wonder what could have been.