Leo Wong didn’t know what the World Trade Center was until Sept. 11, 2001.

The sophomore advertising major at Syracuse University was eight years old and living in San Gabriel, Calif., at the time of the attacks.

‘I didn’t truly understand what was going on,’ he said. ‘I knew it was some famous building that was collapsing, but I did not know why until later on that week. I know it sounds bad but I just thought to myself, ‘Oh, it’s just another natural disaster.’ But I was completely wrong.’

Wong remembers when he first saw the images of the World Trade Center collapsing.

‘I walked into my elementary school teacher’s classroom, and she was blankly staring at the TV in shock, so I glanced up and saw what happened,’ he said. ‘I was in shock, too, but only because there was a bunch of fire and rubbish all around.’

Wong said he believes the effects of 9/11 can still be felt by his generation. He said he believes Americans are now more aware of their surroundings and more cautious about potential threats of terrorism.

Unlike Wong, Derek Horn, an undeclared freshman in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, was living in Syracuse at the time. He said he knew something was wrong before he left his elementary school that day.

Horn said the teachers had given him and the other students a piece of paper that was folded and stapled shut. ‘We had no idea what it was,’ he said.

Horn was in for more confusion when he got home. He was surprised to see both of his parents at home because his dad normally worked until 5 p.m.

‘My aunt was also over with my then-3-year-old cousin; she was in the living room, standing in front of the TV watching the news with tissues in her hands,’ Horn said. ‘I asked why my aunt was over and they told me that she didn’t want to be home alone; my uncle’s state police helicopter crew was sent down to the city area.’

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, director of the Middle Eastern studies program, said the shock of losing all sense of personal security is something he believes will stay with people forever.

‘People came to the recognition that some people sitting in a cave in Afghanistan can come up with a plan to bring down major icons of American power. That sense of security was no longer there; I think that is something that will stay with this generation,’ he said.

Adam Elrashidi, a second-year media studies graduate student, was 16 years old when 9/11 happened.

As a Muslim, Elrashidi said he personally never felt explicitly discriminated against. He said there were times when he felt people looked at him differently, such as gas station attendants or teachers. But no one ever blatantly discriminated against him, he said.

‘I think that any discrimination I felt or saw, I think that came outside — the ‘experts’ on the news telling me what I believe and what kind of people I come from. It was more of a cultural discrimination,’ he said.

Elrashidi said he believes the 9/11 attacks made people his age feel like a ‘lost generation.’ He said that being 16 at the time of the attacks and having to deal with pundits and misinformation was a ‘hard period of time to have your adolescence formed.’

‘It kind of made me more cynical, and it probably hardened my perspective of the nature of human beings and the nature of the media,’ he said. ‘It hardened my perspective on just how people are. It made me distrustful of people and what their motivations are a lot sooner than it should’ve.’

Judy O’Rourke, director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, was at SU at the time of the attacks. She said many people thought it was a terrible accident at first. She said people began to realize it was a terrorist attack once the second plane hit.

O’Rourke said that she believes the attacks opened everyone’s eyes and made people realize that terrorism can happen anywhere.

‘I think students and everyone were jolted into the realization that terrorism is not something that happens ‘out there,’ it could happen to anyone, anywhere. And that was a frightening thought for us all,’ she said.

Horn, the freshman from Syracuse, also said he thinks his generation will always be cautious and conscious of future terrorist threats.

‘I think that there will always be a fear for terrorism that is scarred in the back of everyone’s mind,’ he said. ‘No matter how much things change in the world, I feel like it will always be there.’

Boroujerdi said that although 9/11 was an awful tragedy, there are some positive things that came from it, such as more in-depth cultural awareness.

There is now a greater interest in the Middle East among SU students, he said. In 2003, many of the Middle Eastern classes were created in response to 9/11, Boroujerdi said. Now, he said, it is hard for the department to keep up with student interest.

He said: ‘More students are traveling there and are interested in seeing things for themselves.’

snbouvia@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephanie: snbouvia@syr.edu | @snbouvia