My inspirations

For me, I can not just pin point one individual person who has affected me the most. Each and every one of these life stories is too remarkable to not be affected by. As a combat veteran, I can mostly relate to Nick, Tim and Brian. All of their stories reassure me, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Something that inspired me about Nick Chirls is how, in the beginning he was full of hatred and anger. He even made the comment in regards to the money from his mother's death as being "blood money". He didn't feel right using it because it was the result from a terrorist attack. Then when you fast-forwarded to the year 2009, he said he doesn't hate Bin Laden as a person because he doesn't know him as a person. He eventually was able to set aside his hatred and anger to be the bigger person. Needless to say, I have a lot of anger, hatred and resentment built up in me as well and it's not who I am nor who I want to be.

Next, Tim Brown, is inspiring to me because he overcame his survivor's guilt. When he mentioned how Beth said, "Where's Terry? Go back and get him. What are you doing here?" that's crushing. Especially for him at that point in time because he hadn't realized there wasn't anything he could have done. I've been diagnosed with survivor's guilt since my first tour ended 2009. For someone who experienced his situation and has found a way to finally live for himself and realize he deserves to be happy, gives me hope. He realized there wasn't anything he could have done to save his friend, that would not have resulted in his own death as well.

As for Brian Lyons, he lost his best friend/brother. He didn't know how to deal with it and started to suffer problems within his marriage. He was strong enough to seek professional help and was diagnosed with PTSD. I got diagnosed after a being home from my first tour for about six months. He went through the same process I'm going through. He had to take pills and see a therapist but overtime he eventually was able to stop taking the pills and stop seeing a therapist. He beat his PTSD but didn't forget what had happened that day. I liked how in the film he said to his workers, who were complaining about picking up trash, "Do you know what happened here? Close to 2,800 people died here. That's why we're putting up this tower. Think about what you're doing and saying sometimes.". I know you can't rush the process but he makes me look for the good that's soon to come.