09/11/2026
What September 11 Taught Me About Travel, America, and the Stories We Believe
Whenever September 11 comes around, I think about where I was when the planes stopped flying.
I was working in the travel industry, and I will never forget the confusion and fear of those days.
I was in the middle of booking a flight for a brand-new business client. She was going to call me back. She did—but instead of confirming her trip, she canceled it.
I remember my stepson watching the news and getting ready to leave to go home to Virginia. I begged him to stay with us for a couple of nights because none of us knew what was happening or what might happen next.
And then there were the clients I hadn't heard from in years, calling and emailing to ask if I could help them.
The truth was, I could barely help my own clients. I certainly couldn't help people I hadn't heard from in years.
Travel—something I had always associated with freedom, adventure, discovery, and bringing people together—suddenly became associated with fear.
But September 11 eventually changed something else in me.
It made me question the world I thought I understood.
And eventually, it made me question America.
Before 9/11, I think I was like many Americans. I believed the version of the world I had been taught. I trusted our institutions. I assumed that when our government told us why we were going to war, there was a good and necessary reason.
Then came Afghanistan. Iraq. The "War on Terror." The Patriot Act. Expanded surveillance. New security measures. Years of war, enormous costs, and countless lives changed forever.
We were given a very simple story:
We were the good guys. They were the bad guys. We were defending freedom.
But the older I became—and the more I traveled—the harder it became for me to see the world that way.
Travel changed my perspective in a way no classroom ever could.
I met people from different countries and cultures. I heard different versions of history. I learned how America and American foreign policy were viewed from outside our borders.
And sometimes, what I heard was uncomfortable.
That's when I began to understand that patriotism and unquestioning loyalty are not the same thing.
Loving your country doesn't mean believing everything your government tells you.
In fact, I believe one of the most patriotic things we can do is ask questions.
What are we being told?
What aren't we being told?
Who benefits?
Who pays the price?
And what happens to ordinary people when powerful governments decide that war is the answer?
Travel also taught me something else: people aren't headlines.
They aren't governments.
They aren't terrorist organizations.
They aren't political talking points.
They are mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, teachers, workers, travelers and dreamers.
Just like us.
The more I traveled, the more I realized how dangerous it can be to divide the world into "us" and "them."
That doesn't mean believing every alternative explanation or turning everything into a conspiracy.
It means being willing to question.
September 11 taught me how powerful fear can be. Fear can change a country. It can make us surrender freedoms we once considered fundamental. It can make us see strangers as enemies. And it can make us accept extraordinary measures because we are told they will keep us safe.
We should never allow fear to become an excuse to stop thinking.
I will always remember the people who died on September 11 and the families whose lives were changed forever. We can mourn those losses, condemn terrorism, and still question what happened afterward.
We can love America and still criticize America.
Those things are not contradictions.
They are part of living in a democracy.
For me, travel became one of the greatest teachers of all.
It taught me to listen.
It taught me that history looks very different depending on where you are standing.
It taught me that the world is far more complicated than the stories we are sometimes given.
And most importantly, it taught me to think for myself.
September 11 changed travel.
It changed America.
And it changed me.
Perhaps the greatest lesson I've taken from all of it is this:
Don't let anyone tell you that you've seen the whole picture when they've only shown you one side.
Go see for yourself.
Talk to people.
Listen.
Question.
Learn.
Because the world is too complicated—and human life too precious—for us to surrender our curiosity, our compassion, or our critical thinking to fear.
