What a difference seven years makes. Or does it?

We are a generation marked by the vision of those jets slamming into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the white streak plowing into the Pentagon. We know the significance of United Airlines Flight 93 without any prompting.

And we have changed.

We have adapted to longer waits for our flights because of security measures. We hand over extra methods of identification for drivers’ licenses and checking or savings accounts.

Our language has adapted words and phrases, such as homeland security, national threat advisory, war on terror and ground zero.

Despite the changes, we have remained resilient. We have shouldered the extra security measures and have sent sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters off to war because our nation asked them to defend us.

We have not bowed our heads in defeat, but in prayer.

We are one nation, under God and indivisible despite our differences.

And in seven years, we have grown stronger because we remember Sept. 11, 2001.