On the other side of Sept. 11, 2001, a lot of things changed. For Susan Lightsey, it bent her career path in a different direction.
“I was going to major in political studies and broadcast journalism, and I was going to be in the White House,” she said. “I had my whole plan laid out. I knew what I wanted to do.”
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But then the 9/11 terror attacks happened during her senior year of high school, and the next time an advisor asked her what she wanted to do with her life, she said, “I want to go into public service.”
Shifted focus
Then Lightsey got more specific — a firefighter.
“That day really did change my mind. Not even changed my mind — it just it shifted my focus from just showing people what’s happening to helping prevent, prepare for and get through the things that are going to happen,” she said. “There’s not a lot that we can do to stop bad things from happening, but to be able to prepare for them and to help people through them … that’s what I remember from watching all the video footage from 9/11.”
Yes, she said, there was devastation, pain and anger.
“But it was watching the people come together and watching the people get through it … that’s where I wanted to be. So as terrible as it sounds, I owe everything to that one day.”
It continues to impact the way she serves in her role today.
“From a leadership standpoint where I’m at now … it’s to just train everybody who comes after us with that same fire and that same mindset that we had when we made that decision … to go into public service, whether it be police, fire, EMS, military, medical,” Lightsey said. “For those of us who made that decision after 9/11, we did it with a passion and with a fire and for a reason.”
Conviction
It was a conviction, she said.
“I think the best way to honor everybody that was there that day is to train the people that come after us with that same mindset … to teach them that there’s a reason that we’re here,” she said. “We don’t cut corners. We don’t skip steps. We do everything exactly as we’re supposed to because that’s how we save lives.”
