H-H Senior Remembers September 11 Tragedy

Kirsten Cills celebrated a pretty important milestone on Tuesday – her last first day of school. And on Sunday, the senior will mark another - the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

While many from Hatboro and Horsham recall watching on television as the World Trade Center towers were struck and later collapsed, Kirsten, then 7, who at the time lived in Manhattan, about a block and a half from the south tower, was en route to school as the tragedy unfolded.

“When the second building fell, we literally had to outrun it,” Kirsten, now 17, said during an interview with Patch. “That was scary – the noise of the second building falling … You will probably never hear New York City as silent as it was when people realized that second building was falling.”

As her family walked the then second-grader into school a little late that Tuesday morning, Kirsten said she was walking beside the first tower as the plane came crashing into it. At that time, Kirsten, like the rest of the country, didn’t know what happened. Was it construction? A bomb?

Her young mind could not yet fathom terrorism or the thought of people in other countries wanting to kill Americans.

“Kids now definitely understand that kind of stuff,” she said. “Before 9/11 there really wasn’t much of a worry.”

After witnessing, first-hand, the aftermath of the most horrific act on American soil - which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people - Kirsten said her perception has changed, making her “a little desensitized.”

“I saw so many people die that day,” she said, adding that clothes and shoes were everywhere. “It was like a real-life horror movie.”

To complicate the already chaotic situation, Kirsten had been diagnosed shortly before the attacks with cystic fibrosis, a condition that makes it hard for her to breathe. As she and her family fled the smoke-filled city, mostly on foot, frequent stops to rest were necessary. Eventually, Kirsten said a man on the street gave her – and others sickened by the smoke – a medical mask.

For the most part, the family had to walk through New York City in their quest to get to a family friend’s house in Brooklyn. Crossing bridges was out, she said.

“No one knew what was safe and what wasn’t safe,” Kirsten said, adding that a trip on the subway added to the chaos. “I just remember people shoving people to the ground. There was no way to fit in safely.”

The home that she had shared with her mother, brother, step-father and step-brother up until that day was no more. She recalled that the building was located so close to the south tower that in pictures she’s seen of the tower burning, “I can always see my house on the side.”

“Literally half the building was cut off,” she said, adding that it was filled with debris. “There was really no way to get back in there.”

Left with nothing but each other, the family lived in a hotel for about two months until they were able to move back to this area, where Kirsten was originally from. Ironically, leaving New York for a sense of normalcy and safety brought Kirsten and her family to Horsham – right next to the . Up until recently, when the , Kirsten said low-flying planes would frequently rattle the house, sometimes conjuring up memories of that fateful day.

But, looking back, a decade later, Kirsten said she feels “pretty safe.”

“I don’t really sit around all day and worry,” she said. “I feel like I have over-reacted so much over the past 10 years.”

Although she’s been in therapy ever since the tragedy and began treatment last year for post-traumatic stress disorder, Kirsten said she and her family treat September 11 “like any other day.”

“Being a child of 9/11 there’s a lot of emotional baggage that’s expected to come with it," she said. “It’s not really something I think about on a daily basis."

Had the terrorist attacks never happened, Kirsten, an aspiring actress, said she’s positive the family would still be living in Manhattan. Even though leaving the city was priority after September 11, Kirsten said they have gone back to Manhattan periodically to see shows.

“It’s not like it’s foreign,” she said.

In fact, one of the schools Kirsten is considering for college, the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, is located in New York City. She auditioned recently and now needs to submit an application. Who knows, maybe Kirsten’s next milestone could begin in the city where her most historic one took place.