I was in ninth grade when the world shifted.
The announcement came like static over the air,
and I remember staring at the TV screen,
not even knowing what the World Trade Center was.
But I knew enough.
Enough to feel disgust.
Enough to feel that sense of fracture in the air.
Enough to know that the world had just changed,
and so, had I.
While my classmates talked about college applications and weekend plans,
I was consumed by one thought:
Justice.
Not a career path, not a polished future—
but the need to do something.
Anything.
That day, a fire was lit inside me.
It wasn’t about medals or degrees.
It was about standing for something greater.
About honoring lives that were stolen,
about carrying resilience forward.
Looking back now, I see the twists and turns my journey has taken.
The paths I chose have shifted,
the directions have changed.
But the determination that was born on September 11, 2001—
that remains carved into my bones.
I will never forget.
Not the moment.
Not the feeling.
Not the way it shaped the soldier, the artist, the advocate I became.
9/11 lives within me—not as fear, but as fire.
And that fire continues to guide the way I write, speak, serve, and live.
– Poetic Veteran