I kind of knew Christina Ray Stanton before reading her book. She grew up in my hometown of Tallahassee, FL, and I met her once in New York City. I knew she was in NYC during 9/11, but didn’t know much more. 

A few years ago, my mom told me Christina was writing a book about her 9/11 experience, and I was very excited to read it. It was also interesting to me, because I had just started writing my own memoir, Discovering My Scars. 

I ordered my copy of Christina’s book as soon as it was available (May 31st 2019) and read it in one day. I planned to take a few days, but I couldn’t put it down! 

The book starts right where I remember learning of the events, the morning of September 11, 2001. 

This November will mark three years since I started writing my memoir, Discovering My Scars. I had layers of fear about sharing my story with the world, one of them being the fact that I’m dyslexic. 

At the beginning of first grade, my teacher was pregnant and left a few months later to go on maternity leave. When she returned, she was the first to notice that I wasn’t progressing like the other students.

I was tested, and diagnosed with a reading and writing learning disability (dyslexia). I was in regular classes, but pulled out for a few hours a week for special one-on-one teaching. I was taught differently, as I learned differently than others in my grade.