By Joe Camacho
“I was in first period, 7th grade, Coach Collin’s class,” says English senior Sarah Ortiz.
Ortiz was attending Rogers Middle School on the Southeast Side of San Antonio on Sept. 11, 2001.
The daughter of a peace officer and Air Force employee,
Ortiz says the increased level of security and stress impacted her father and stepmother long after 9/11.
“When it happened, I was scared,” Ortiz recalls.
The stress of war after 9/11 and its effects on the men and women in uniform was witnessed firsthand by Ortiz. The experience became a personal one for her.
Tension and uneasiness followed when a close family member entered the war in Afghanistan. The strain was even harder to bear when that same family member was called upon to fight once again , she explains.
In the years that followed, Ortiz observed changes as the pressures of two wars took a toll on her family. 9/11, she says, and the subsequent wars, took something that could never be given back to her.
“Patriotism,” Ortiz says resolutely.
But 9/11 gave the United States a renewed, positive belief in the human spirit, Ortiz reflects. She says she carries her loss close to her heart but remains positive.
Ortiz will graduate from Texas A&M-San Antonio in December.
