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QUINCY, ILL. -- For those of us old enough to remember, the memories of September 11th will forever be etched in our minds.

But for many students in school, their memories aren't of the actual day but the events that followed.

Tuesday, classrooms at Quincy Senior High sat in silence. A voice of a student sounded over the intercom.

"This day has had a significant impact on each of our lives and we may not even realize it," Alex Brown said.

Most of these students were were no more than 7-years-old at the time of the attacks.

"My reaction on that day was based off of the reactions of the adults who were around me. So it evoked a lot of fear and confusion," Measha Ferguson-Smith said.

"My family gathered around the TV, staring at the news. I didn't know what was going on. I thought it was a holiday or something," Zach Walker said.

What they were seeing was a nation's newfound unity in the wake of tragedy.

"I remember there was a lot more patriotism right afterward. Like everyone had a flag out, lots of posters, always the same God Bless America ones you still see," Brown said.

It would take a number of years before some of these students really got the message.

"During our Freshman year, a friend and I on 9/11, we sat down and watched the footage from it. I remember when I watched it I was shocked, but I think I understood what happened," Kelsey Shoot said.

"I would imagine, as difficult as it is for us to watch footage of the towers fall, how difficult it would be for people who lost a loved one to watch. I can't even fathom having to do that year after year," Ferguson-Smith said.

"It's just a day for us and we're talking about it, we feel sadness and have sympathy for it, but people are visiting gravestones. They were affected by it," Emily Meyer said.

"I was only 5 or 6 at the time, so I hardly comprehended how big it was, it but I know the events following it were pretty serious, like the war in Iraq and Afghanistan," Walker said.

"We don't understand the motives but we understand the effect.That is basically our generation. We don't have the personal experiences from that day.This is our normal, post 9/11. It's our normal and it's just crazy because we don't understand it but we have to live it," Ferguson-Smith said.

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