Alexandra Wald wanted to understand. She soaked up books about the forces and failures that led to Sept. 11. She took four years of Arabic in college, got a master's degree in international relations and aspired to work in intelligence.
"Being as affected as I was by the geopolitical landscape and my dad being killed on 9/11," she says, "I wanted to make sure it never happened again."
It was her first day of high school when her father, stockbroker Victor Wald, was killed at the World Trade Center.
His daughter, who goes by Alex, was already interested in world events. But 9/11 made her want "to be that person to decipher that information, to protect the homeland."
Now 28, she works on a cybersecurity project for a contractor for the federal General Services Administration in Washington.
Studying for her career — with help from the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, set up for the children of 9/11 victims — also meant dealing with the frustration of contemplating missed opportunities to disrupt the terror plot.
When the anger stirred, she'd think of some advice her father gave her a few weeks before the attacks.
"You can't look back with regret," he told her. And "never say, 'What if?'"
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"ONCE IT'S ON MY SKIN, I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT"
It's all right to ask Ryan McGowan about the "IX.XI" tattooed on the back of her neck. It's 9/11 in Roman numerals.
"Once it's on my skin," she says, "I have to talk about it."
Ryan was 5, sister Casey 4, when their mother, investment executive Stacey Sennas McGowan, was killed at the trade center.
As a preteen, Ryan partly played the role of parent, helping her sister pick outfits for school and making dinner when their father, Tom, had to work. She came to think of her mother as "an amazing guardian angel."
Now 20, Ryan is a junior majoring in marketing at Boston College, where 19-year-old Casey is a sophomore in communications.
Often, Ryan makes her way through the campus to a labyrinth inscribed with her mom's name and those of 21 fellow BC graduates killed in 9/11. It's a place she feels close to her mother, whose remains were never identified and buried.
"I can just sit there and reflect," she says. "I don't have that anywhere else."
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Alexandra Wald wanted to understand. She soaked up books about the forces and failures that led to Sept. 11. She took four years of Arabic in college, got a master's degree in international relations and aspired to work in intelligence.
"Being as affected as I was by the geopolitical landscape and my dad being killed on 9/11," she says, "I wanted to make sure it never happened again."
It was her first day of high school when her father, stockbroker Victor Wald, was killed at the World Trade Center.
His daughter, who goes by Alex, was already interested in world events. But 9/11 made her want "to be that person to decipher that information, to protect the homeland."
Now 28, she works on a cybersecurity project for a contractor for the federal General Services Administration in Washington.
Studying for her career — with help from the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, set up for the children of 9/11 victims — also meant dealing with the frustration of contemplating missed opportunities to disrupt the terror plot.
When the anger stirred, she'd think of some advice her father gave her a few weeks before the attacks.
"You can't look back with regret," he told her. And "never say, 'What if?'"
———
"ONCE IT'S ON MY SKIN, I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT"
It's all right to ask Ryan McGowan about the "IX.XI" tattooed on the back of her neck. It's 9/11 in Roman numerals.
"Once it's on my skin," she says, "I have to talk about it."
Ryan was 5, sister Casey 4, when their mother, investment executive Stacey Sennas McGowan, was killed at the trade center.
As a preteen, Ryan partly played the role of parent, helping her sister pick outfits for school and making dinner when their father, Tom, had to work. She came to think of her mother as "an amazing guardian angel."
Now 20, Ryan is a junior majoring in marketing at Boston College, where 19-year-old Casey is a sophomore in communications.
Often, Ryan makes her way through the campus to a labyrinth inscribed with her mom's name and those of 21 fellow BC graduates killed in 9/11. It's a place she feels close to her mother, whose remains were never identified and buried.
"I can just sit there and reflect," she says. "I don't have that anywhere else."
———