Index for September 11th

""Index for September 11th" was born out of a tumultuous adolescence spent in a rapidly changing world. It describes the transition from girl to woman that occurred between 2001 and 2011. During this decade, I moved from Michigan to New York City, survived several bouts of major depression, graduated from college, and learned how to navigate the world on my own. The index format of the text was inspired by a poem devised by the writer Ander Monson. This format felt perfectly suited to the subject matter because it allowed me to categorize and classify disparate events, emotions, and encounters that occurred over an extended period of time. In the piece, I come to terms with my heritage, my family, and my own unending (and at times agonizing) search for personal and professional fulfillment. Major themes include the resilience of the female body, mental health, the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, and the effects of history on the present moment. During the years before I submitted the book, my professional life took a turn towards medicine, and I decided to become a vascular surgeon. As I edited the piece during my final year of medical school, I realized that, oddly enough, much of the language in the poem predicted this: I spoke of blood, the aorta, and the process of coagulation as though they were already elements of my daily life. Getting the book ready for publication during my first year of surgical residency helped me to understand the hidden connections between poetry, the body, and vascular surgery"--