Touring the World Trade Center before and after

“Did you see people die?”

“Did you think you were gonna die?”

The teenagers gathered around me were not afraid to ask personal questions, and I was not offended by them. After all, I had just shared my very personal 9/11 story with this group of high schoolers from Texas. And as a licensed NYC tour guide of almost 30 years, I was used to it.

We were gathered around the banister overlooking the 9/11 Memorial built in the footprint of the Twin Towers. I had brought them here after leading them through the 9/11 Memorial Museum within the 16-acre World Trade Center complex. Turning around, I drew their attention to a nearby apartment building and explained how my husband and I had seen a passenger jet plow into the South Tower from our terrace in that building.

I recounted our panicked flight from our home while still in pajamas, and described how we’d almost been smothered by dust and debris and toxic gunk when the towers collapsed. I told them how we had been transported off Manhattan through an organized boat evacuation that had rescued hundreds of thousands that day.

The kids listened attentively, and when I finished, one turned and thanked me. “I’ve always heard about 9/11 but I didn’t really understand it. This made it real for me.”

I smiled and thought, “And that’s why I keep doing this!”

I had moved to New York City from Florida in 1993 and became a licensed tour guide two years later. In those days, I regularly conducted tours in the World Trade Center complex, gathering groups around “The Sphere,” Fritz Koenig’s centerpiece sculpture. I would describe the sculpture and chronicle the history and architecture of nearby notable structures, along with the buildings that made up the WTC complex.

We would then proceed to the South Tower, taking the 82-second elevator ride to the observatory to enjoy a view that stretched 50 miles in every direction. Afterward, we would descend to the underground mall for lunch and shopping, before heading back into the center of the complex and saying goodbye back at “The Sphere.”

I shepherded a few thousand tourists along this route over the next six years. In July 2001, we moved into an apartment six blocks away with a fantastic view of the Twin Towers. I was thrilled to live where I worked.

When the attacks demolished the complex and devastated my neighborhood, our sense of safety and normalcy had been completely upended. New York City tourism was at a standstill, and I wondered if I would ever work as a guide again.

When tour groups slowly began returning in 2002, I had to steel myself for a new itinerary. Instead of “Visit World Trade Center,” my groups were now scheduled to “Visit Ground Zero.” At first, I tried to avoid the area since it made me weep — because really, who wants a crying tour guide?

But as I adapted to the new landscape, I learned new routes and adjusted to the ever-changing overlooks so my groups could get the best possible view of the demolition and reconstruction. I wanted them to see for themselves what had been lost and what was being rebuilt.

I felt a sense of sense of duty, as a New Yorker, as a guide who had toured the original World Trade Center, as someone who lived in the neighborhood, and as someone who had survived the 9/11 attacks to make sure my groups knew what had happened here.

And as the years progressed, I came to believe that telling my story would be the best way possible for me to honor the 2,977 souls who were murdered that day. Today, I regularly share my 9/11 experiences with youngsters who were born after the attacks, which I believe makes my work even more important.

I’m one of a handful of people who guided tours in the World Trade Center area before 9/11 and still do so today. When I bring groups to the 9/11 Memorial and the WTC complex now, I like to point out the battered sculpture of “The Sphere,” which was fished out of the rubble of Ground Zero destruction.

In 2017, “The Sphere” was mounted in its unrepaired condition in Liberty Park, which overlooks the area, to attest to both the destruction of 9/11 and the resiliency of the city that rose from the ashes.

As I look at “The Sphere” and the beautiful memorial complex, I feel a strong calling to help ensure a new generation never forgets the effort to tear us down. And also to remind them how utterly that effort failed.

Ray Stanton is author of “Out of the Shadow of 9/11: An Inspiring Tale of Escape and Transformation.”