“I still recall exactly where I was and what I was doing…”

I’ve read some version of that sentence in countless 9/11 remembrances this week. And I’ve said it myself.

I was CFO of Atos Origin. In my memory, I was sitting by a first-floor window in our Murray Hill, New Jersey office, looking toward Manhattan and seeing smoke rising from the Towers in the distance.

The most technically adept among us with the internet and IT tools of the time was getting news and video directly on his PC. We watched in disbelief. The country was under attack.

I have remembered that scene for 25 years.

There is just one problem.

A few years ago, some of us got together and started reminiscing. As we reconstructed the timeline, I realized that by September 2001 we were no longer in Murray Hill. We had moved to South Plainfield.

From there, I could not possibly have had the view of Manhattan I remember so clearly.

So where did that memory come from?

I certainly saw the smoke on television and online. Perhaps I saw it myself later that day while traveling. Perhaps several real memories simply merged over the years into one coherent scene.

I don’t know anymore.

Other memories remain extraordinarily vivid. The eerie silence after commercial aviation was grounded. No planes overhead. Nothing. A colleague visiting from our Texas office waiting a couple of days and finally renting a car for the long drive home.

I believe those memories are accurate.

But then again, I believed the window was accurate.

There is something humbling in that.

We tend to think of memory as a recording that fades with age. Maybe it is closer to a story we reconstruct each time we retrieve it—preserving pieces, moving others, filling gaps, and eventually leaving us with a narrative that can feel absolutely authentic even when some of its details are wrong.

That has implications beyond our personal memories.

History is filled with eyewitness accounts and recollections of people who were there. Most were undoubtedly offered honestly. But “I remember it clearly” and “this is exactly what happened” are not necessarily the same thing.

Twenty-five years later, I remember 9/11 vividly.

I’m just a little less certain now about exactly what I remember.