My name is Angelica Niedermeyer and I was born eight months after my father, Alfonse Joseph Niedermeyer III, died on duty as a Port Authority Police Officer in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. I will always miss a parent whom I have never met.
When I moved onto the Manhattan College campus in New York City it was August 2020, and we had just come out of lockdown. I wrote my first Her Campus article about the impact of 9/11 and Covid-19 on Generation Z and the controversy that was lighting up the Tribute in Light during a global pandemic. Now, I am a senior studying journalism and interning in the brand department at the Port Authority of NY & NJ, in the building that overlooks my father’s, and thousands and thousands of others’, memorial.
So much has changed over the last 22 years and I am still processing everything. Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda who was responsible for the attacks, was killed by Navy SEAL Team Six on my 9th birthday. That was a weird gift. Most of the time I am OK, but then I’ll be watching the television show Friends and the mindless B-roll of the Twin Towers is a trigger, not just a ‘90’s New York staple. Or some drunk idiot makes a disturbing 9/11 joke and I have to remind myself that people my age are so far removed from the tragic day. On top of that, my generation is so numb to tragedies because of the overconsumption of negative breaking news.
But, not everyone is born with grief. Every year, like clockwork, I get anxious around September. I can never control it or skip a year. It comes whether I want it to or not as if a new school year isn’t enough commotion. Just like Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, I wish someone could “Wake Me Up When September Ends”.
This year, I can’t believe I am a senior and that I experienced a global pandemic before my degree. I would not have believed you if you told me that I would have been an intern at the agency where my dad worked. I have a lot of feelings and I will always be emotional and confused about everything. But in a world that we cannot control, I get to choose to write and create. I get to share my thoughts in a way that people can understand and learn.
Currently, I am the leader of Her Campus at Manhattan and I take so much pride in running such a beautiful team of women writing their hearts out. I am so thankful that I found Her Campus at Manhattan on Instagram during the lockdown and took a chance on joining an online magazine. Having an outlet to write changes your thought process and can be a form of meditation.
Thank you for taking the time to read a glimpse of my story and I encourage you to find a special place like Her Campus to be an extension of yourself.