On a gorgeous September morning, painted with pure blue skies, Jess Panza headed off to school. 10 years later, the Long Island native and N.C . State senior is a part of the Wolfpack gymnastic team.

What happened early that morning would forever change the way New York residents lived their lives. Fortunate to not be deeply affected by September 11th, Panza now looks back on every accomplishment that follows as a blessing.

“It’s just unreal,” Panza said. “Now that I’m older and I do watch [videos on 9/11], I wish that I could have remembered more than I did. As much as it seems so far away, it’s really not. Anything could have happened if one of the planes accidentally went down in Long Island.

“I couldn’t imagine being how old I am now and having that happen. It definitely would have impacted me a lot more.”

Panza’s father was one of the unsung heroes in the hours and days following the attacks. As a Long Island police officer, he helped with the clean-up in lower Manhattan. This connection was not the only one to impact Panza’s family.

“My grandparent’s friends were firefighters and their sons were firefighters,” Panza said. “One of them was killed. There are a lot of people that you know that are firefighters and policemen, and so many of them passed away.”

Although any events on the day are difficult to put into words, Panza related the hours following the tower’s collapse to one part of nature many southerners have experienced.

“It was kind of how a forest fire would be here,” Panza said. “Within about four or five hours, it was really hazy and foggy on Long Island. It didn’t necessarily affect me personally, but I was definitely aware of how serious it was.”

While admitting she does not follow sports very closely, Panza made specific mention of the New York Yankees’ first home game after the attacks. Playing what was then the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Panza said the whole city rejoiced in the opportunity to cheer on their favorite team. Across the nation, returning to sports helped remove our eyes from all different degrees of emotional scar tissue.

“It brought a sense of unity to not just New York, but the entire nation,” Panza said. “From a horrible situation, sports brought many people together.”

Cheering for separate teams, in a country with deep roots of heated rivals, brought focus to a bigger team of over 300 million people.

Among the 2,600 people working at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, 125 lost their lives. Kristopher Kornegay-Gober , a junior who was the top high jumper on State’s track and field team last season, attended high school in Washington, D.C . and lived close by in Maryland beforehand. His cousin was one of those 2,600 workers, residing just two sides of the building away from where the attacks happened.

“My family wasn’t directly involved, but I always wonder what could have happened that day,” Kornegay-Gober said. “My cousin was so close to the attacks and the intended target was the White House. That isn’t far away from where I live.”

Kornegay-Gober’s story is akin to that of many children who went to school in the D.C . area that day. Having been sent home shortly after news broke of the 9:37 a.m . attack, innocent minds returned to their families with little to no understanding of the day’s magnitude.

“I remember in fourth grade we were watching news reports on what had happened in Arlington [site of the Pentagon],” Kornegay-Gober said. “They cancelled school almost instantaneously. At the time, I just thought a plane had gone into a building, but everything changed when I got home. The fact that it was an attack changed how I was thinking.”

In a country where sports is widely an entertainment outlet relatively detached from life’s more pressing issues, the attacks have created a profound impact on viewing sports. Kornegay-Gober , an athlete whose mother served in the military, felt the impact when attending an NFL game shortly after the attacks.

“For my birthday, we drove up to a Baltimore Ravens game,” Kornegay-Gober said. “During the national anthem and during the halftime tribute to the military, you could tell there was a spark in patriotism. My mom, who had retired from the military, felt that unity in the stadium.”

Three years later, the first post-9/11 Summer Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece. Focusing in on the sporting world’s role to represent unity no matter the circumstance, the junior said he vividly remembers how the United States came together to cheer on all different types of athletes, including track and field athletes.

“I think 2004 in Athens was a very special moment,” Kornegay-Gober said. “It really put into perspective what sports means to our country.

“I know it meant a lot to me. It still does to this day.”