I was 12 when I survived 9/11. Here's how I finally recovered.

I spent my teenage years traumatized, misdiagnosed, and plagued by residual fear

The Tribute in Light illuminated on the skyline of lower Manhattan in 2014.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

On September 11, 2001, I was in school in downtown Manhattan. It was my second day of seventh grade. My classroom was just three blocks away from the World Trade Center, separated from those iconic buildings only by a highway and a few sidewalks. Sometime that morning, we students were ushered down to the cafeteria and told not to stop at our lockers. We were all speculating about what was going on, but at that point, I remember: I wasn't afraid. Not yet. Then some kids who had working radios on their portable CD players relayed the news: Two planes had hit the towers.

When the bomb squad burst through the doors, along with droves of hysterical parents crying and screaming, I knew my parents wouldn't be among them — they were still at their far-away jobs. I spotted Ann and her son Charles, who I walked to school with every day, and I instinctively hustled over to them, knowing they could get me home so I wouldn't have to evacuate to wherever the other kids were going.

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Helaina Hovitz

Helaina Hovitz is an editor, writer, and author of the memoir After 9/11. She has written for The New York Times, Salon, Newsweek, Glamour, Forbes, Women's Health, VICE, and many others. She is currently the editor of branded content at Upworthy/GOOD.