By Hiba Ahmad
Age (when it happened): 5
Location (when it happened): Quincy, Mass.
Memory: I was five when I saw two buildings up in smoke on the TV, after my mom had brought me home from school. I vaguely remember her begging my dad to come home because he was in the city just in case something else happens.
I may not have understood exactly how my identity as a young, Muslim woman of Pakistani descent would propel me further into pursuing the field, but I knew that one day I wanted to be like those reporters who ran towards a crisis simply to tell the stories that so desperately needed to be told.
How it lives with you today: Flash forward 10 years to high school, and I’m on a field trip with my journalism class to the Newseum. They had just opened a new exhibit on 9/11 and I remember reading a quote on the wall that resonates with me to this day, “There are three types of people who run towards crisis, police officers, firefighters, and reporters.”
I then walked into the next part of the exhibit to find the wall decorated with the front pages of newspapers from all around the country with their coverage of the attack. It was exactly then when I realized that the only thing I wanted to be was a journalist.
I may not have understood exactly how my identity as a young, Muslim woman of Pakistani descent would propel me further into pursuing the field, but I knew that one day I wanted to be like those reporters who ran towards a crisis simply to tell the stories that so desperately needed to be told.