Feelings on September 11th

Amela Puljek-Shenk

I have a deep need to write these feelings down. I am a person who needs to talk about what she is feeling in order to make sense of the present reality.

Today's events brought all sorts of triggers for me personally. When I saw a bunch of people sitting and looking at the TV screen in the snack shop and when I saw smoke, the immediate thought was that violence had erupted in Bosnia. The next thought was about my parents and my sister and fear of maybe loosing them. I survived the war and during that time I came very close to losing my whole family. So, the events today brought me back into the state of emergency of the war in my mind where I needed to act in some way to provide safety for myself, my parents, husband and all those people who I know and care about. This was and it continues to be a huge trigger for me and it will take some days and even weeks to come to some sense of balance and safety internally.

Amela Puljek-Shank is a student in CTP from Bosnia. She is particularly interested in the journey of healing from trauma.