Most of the students who gathered at Yale’s soccer field on Thursday to mark the anniversary of 9/11 weren’t yet born that day 25 years ago. But the event offered them a chance to better understand the tragedy — and the sacrifices made by so many then and in the years since.

For Caleb Williams, Paige Bueckers and millions of others born in 2001, the world created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks is the only one they know.

From Gen Z to the Silent Generation, Americans told USA TODAY about their memory of 9/11.