Remembering 9/11 as a Surviver
Girl on Fire
I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was a pharmacy student and had spent the early morning window-shopping in the WTC concourse mall. I recall purchasing some pre-holiday presents for my 8-year-old daughter and asking the store to hold them at the Disney Store for pickup after classes were over and during my commute home. I commuted from Newark, NJ, to Brooklyn, NY, five days a week to attend pharmacy school.
The sky was an unusually clear blue, bright, and the air was so perfect.
I started to run behind schedule and attempted to get breakfast. While in line, a voice clearly said, "...just go to school." I looked around, seeing no one speaking to me. I ignored the voice and kept waiting in line to order food. The voice repeated, "...just go to school." I got out of the line and traveled to the subway platform to wait for my train to Brooklyn.
Another classmate joined me, and all of a sudden, a sound like thunder roared, followed by rumbling and shaking of the subway platform. We both looked at each other and said, "...what was that?" Remembering the unusually clear, bright blue sky, it sounded like thunder.
That thunder was the first plane hitting the WTC.
Within a minute, another sound followed that was later identified as the landing gear of the plane falling to the sidewalk above our heads. Next, water and the smell of gas started to spill into the subway on the opposite platform across from where I was standing.
A subway train arrived at the station on the opposite uptown platform, and people began departing and then quickly turned and ran back onto the train. I later realized that the water spilling into the subway was, in fact, fuel spilling from the plane above and drenching the departing subway riders.
My classmate and I had no idea of the danger we were in.
We continued to watch the water spill into the subway as we awaited our train to college.
A couple of trains on our side arrived and departed, and we kept waiting for our train.
A third train arrived, and the conductor instructed everyone on the platform to clear the area and get on the train. We followed the directive, and at the next stop, an announcement reported that there had been an explosion at the WTC.
We got to school late, yet safely, and the rest is embedded in endless accounts, from movies and documentaries filled with more accounts from every perspective.
I, along with the world, lived through and experienced one of the most unbelievable acts of terrorism that the United States has ever encountered.
I was a single mom trying to pursue my life's passion to be a pharmacist. I developed a mindset that I was determined to be done!
Done with not finishing what I started. The events of 9/11, as disruptive as they were for everyone who lived in the immediate areas of all the events, were not going to derail my plan to complete my education and obtain my Doctor of Pharmacy degree.
I graduated on time as the student body president, co-class president, outgoing national student officer, and recipient of numerous awards, including the school's U.S. Public Health Service Award for my service to the student body in various capacities.
Trauma is real! 9/11 could have negatively impacted my life, and instead, I used it to fuel the fire in me to complete my goal.
Today, I'm a psychiatric pharmacist determined to partner and collaborate with multidisciplinary healthcare teams to support people with mental and behavioral health needs.
I'm a Girl on Fire, and the events of 9/11 live in me...
#NeverForget9/11
