Reviewing the WTC Tribute Center Audio Guide

I was 12 years old when the World Trade Center was attacked. I remember feeling jumpy, like I had drank one cup of coffee too many. I remember feeling nervous. But I did not have the emotional response of my parents, that connection and empathy to what was going on. I was just too young. And while I always considered New York my home away from home, I knew that what I felt that day was stunted by a lack of understanding.
The audio guide by the World Trade Center Tribute Center helped change this. The Tribute Center was created as to inform and connect those affected by the World Trade Center. The $10 audio guide is the ways the Tribute Center does this. Leading you around Ground Zero, the guide explains the affects of 9/11with emphasis on the personal affects.
The narrator, Lee, starts by explaining the magnificence of the structures that once stood before you. But what started as an examination of the buildings themselves unfolds into personal narratives about 9/11. Using survivors, victims, volunteers, and firefighters personal accounts, the guide is at times painfully poignant.
Now that I had lived in New York for two years, the personal accounts were moving to the point of tears. One of the most moving stories was that of the narrator himself. While he remained eloquent throughout the tour, his voice slowed as he began his own tale. He struggled as he explained what had happened, taking large breaks to collect him.
Lee recounted talking to his son Jonathan, a firefighter, as he went to help the victims. It was around the time Lee said, that it was the last time that I talked to my son that I had to take the headphones off. It was too real. Tears swelled up in my eyes, as I frantically looked for a bathroom to hide in while I collected myself.
And the power of this story did what I could not do for myself that day in September. It made the tragedy real. And this reaction is both the purpose of the guide and the mission of the Tribute Center. It makes sure we do not forget what happened, and more importantly how it brought us together.