BELL COUNTY, Texas — Editors note: When referencing "lower powerlines," it is in reference to the telecommunications lines.
Whether it was divine intervention or just pure luck, Annette Garcia's choice to stay home on Sept. 11, 2001 will have a great impact on her life forever.
Moments after making that decision she would find out the U.S. was under attack.
Garcia was expected to work at Macy's, which was only a few miles from the World Trade Center, but her pregnancy with her daughter Ayanna Gonzalez would make her feel too sick to go in.
When Garcia found out the first plane had struck one of the towers she immediately worried about her sister.
"She went into work that day," Garcia said.
Garcia's sister would get home safe, but forever changed by what she saw that day in the streets of New York.
"She said when that second plane hit it was just a cloud of smoke," Garcia added.
Garcia said she felt lucky to have not gone in to work that day. Even though she would have been out of harm's way, there's a chance she could have inhaled the fumes from the debris. She doesn't know how that would've impacted her while she was pregnant.
All Garcia could do at home was call people to see if they were okay. Luckily, all of her family and loved ones were safe.
Garcia's unborn child, Ayanna Gonzalez, was safe too, but now Garcia had to face a hard truth; her daughter would be born into a world of terrorism.
Today, Gonzalez remembers 9/11 through videos, textbooks and her mother's stories.
"I don't really have recollection of that time, but I just know it was tragic, and there's so much security because of it," Gonzalez said.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, in the first decade after 9/11, the federal government spent over $62 billion on airport security in total, as annual spending for the TSA increased from $4.34 billion in 2002 to $7.23 billion in 2011, and has only grown since then.
Today, security continues to evolve and strengthen to ensure everyone's safety on airplanes.
But as time goes on perspectives on the day change.
Take Gonzalez for example. She can't even remember the day because she wasn't even born yet.
According to a 2021 study done by Pew Research, 92% of people 80 years old and up have a powerful memory of 9/11 but only 42% of 25-year-olds feel the same way.
No matter what, one fact remains true, and that is that every generation, whether they're born today or 30 years ago, will never forget.