The Lawrence Journal-World asked readers to share their thoughts and memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Several replies are printed here, and many more can be found on ljworld.com.

Some of the essays are heartfelt or melancholy. Others are angry.

Two stand out, however. They are those written by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, a 46-year-old woman who grew up in the shadow of the World Trade Center, and teenager Nash Riggins.

Mirriam-Goldberg and Riggins remember fondly life before 9/11. They both write of a time when they were about the same age, when the world was immense and they small.

But on the same day five years ago today, this young boy and this woman, more than 30 years apart in age, awoke from their sense of innocence.

Now, he looks at the world with jaundiced eyes and sees life with no guarantees. She sees a sense of escape, of what once was.