Adam's Birthday

Since Adam is now a famous scientist, I figured I'd let him tell his own story about his birthday:

My biggest fear regarding my birthday after the destruction of the World Trade Towers was the kind of attitude that other people would display on the anniversary(s) of such a tragic event. I don't want to sound like the most self-centered person alive or anything, but I was ultimately more concerned with whether people would be receptive to having a good time on my birthday than I was with any of the loss of life, scarring of a national psyche, or any of that kind of stuff. September 11 was my birthday for over two decades before it became famous for anything else. Since I'm one of the most unpatriotic people that I know I was much more interested in how people's perceptions of that date would affect their willingness to celebrate the date of my birth than anything else.

In hindsight, my fears have been largely unfounded. Television, radio, internet, and various forms of print media have all done their part to relive the horrific aspects of terrorism in the name of ratings/subscriptions, but I've found that the people that I come into contact with on a regular basis are far less fixated on remaining sorrowfull than they are with getting on with their lives. By avoiding major media outlets on my birthday I've been able to enjoy them, in large part because of the fact that people (or at least people that I know) DON'T sulk about the significance of the date to excess.

If nothing else the tragedy of September 11, 2001 has shown me that people are more positive in nature and more able to move on after terrible events than my sometimes pessimistic view of humanity would have allowed for.

Submitted by: Adam