The effects of 9/11. The options presented when one considers such a prompt are practically endless. Yet upon a bit of reflection, it occurred to us that, as students born between the years of 1998-2002, we may not be in the most suitable positions to determine how this tragedy has changed the world. After all, this is the only world we have ever known.

Or, perhaps not.

We were raised with intense airport security, assuming that taking laptops out of bags and leaving behind fluids were irksome but obvious expectations.

We were raised with millions of other children that got used to war, assuming that it was the default state of our nation. Many felt the effects of the war in their own families, others around the world saw it in their own backyards.

And while one would certainly be hard-pressed to think of a time in history without racial or religious tensions, today witnesses a world far too interconnected, too educated, and too boastful of progress to still be making assumptions about groups that contain millions of individuals.

We are incredibly lucky to attend school in an environment where we are taught to love and honor diversity because so many others are taught to be terrified.

Certainly there were numerous large-scale effects of 9/11, decisions that continue to shape not only America, but the world.

But really, regardless of our opinions on any of those, we recognize that hindsight is 20/20 and people had to make difficult decisions in mindsets that we cannot really begin to understand.

Whatever the intention, the actions of the government after 9/11 were results of and contributors to fear. And while that fear is justified and basically the purpose of the attack, perhaps it is time to get past it.

As 15 years pass from that momentous day, there is the possibility of moving society forward. We may honor the event with memorials, but no longer with the Islamophobia or distrust the terrorists intended to cause.

The world was undeniably changed by 9/11, and there is no going back to a time before it, not with so many unaware of what that world was even like. Perhaps instead, (and call us idealistic), we can forge a new world of more unity and hope than ever before, not guaranteeing peace, but fighting for it.