Thread by @IAmAmnaNawaz

Last year we took the girls to the 9/11 memorial and explained to them as best we could what it all meant. What had happened there.

I wanted them to understand how quickly things changed. How their mama changed. How this country came together after one of its darkest days...

This day always hits me hard.
I was just out of school. Just a few weeks into my first job as a journalist. It changed how I saw the world, and my place in it. Each time I go back to Ground Zero it comes back to me.

This day launched me to the frontlines of America’s wars for years to come. It changed how we lived, how we traveled, what we were willing to say and do in the name of security. I saw the best of us — called to volunteer, creating communities in the broken places — and the worst.

This day changed how people saw me — a Brown, Muslim woman in America. Strangers on the subway, TSA agents, people I’d known for years, comments online...their suspicion came quickly. The questions and comments and accusations. I still get them.

I always think on this day about the countless families I got to know over the years whose lives were shattered on this day or because of it. Who found the strength to pick up the pieces, to move forward, and to do so with love and hope.

This day I think of these words from Nikita Gill. I hope you are all strong enough to rise again. To be able to flourish even in the most broken places. I hope you all blessed with hearts like wildflowers.