On June 12, 2016, Angel Colon’s life was going to change without him having in knowledge of it. Colon decided he was going to have a night out with friends, little did he know his whole life was about to flash right before his eyes. Around 2 a.m., Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, starting shooting individuals with an automatic rifle inside a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in what seemed as a terrorist attack and a hate crime. Angel Colon described the shooting, what was going through his head, and the aftermath of the shooting as he spoke to us about this traumatic experience. Angel had no idea what was going to happen that night, he was just going out to enjoy a night out with friends. …show more content…
PTSD can be described as being a disorder in which an individual can struggle to recover after experiencing a horrible event. For example, anxiety and flashbacks can be triggered throughout the rest of his life. But PTSD does not only affect the victim, it can affect everyone around the individual. The family, spouse, friends, co-workers, and even acquaintances. Colon’s sister explains that Angel is not fighting this by himself, he has many people helping him cope with this event. He does not have to do anything by himself. His family wants to be there for him and that is probably the most important people to be by his side. When it comes to being around someone with PTSD, you have to support them and help them through their struggles, no matter the situation. Having a support system is the most helpful …show more content…
He kept telling us to remember these four words: love, hope, positivity, and forgiveness. Colon describes love as being an intense feeling of deep affection, hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, positivity as the practice of being or tendency to be positive or optimistic in attitude and lastly, forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense. Thinking about these terms described, these are four words we should use each and every day. We should love one another, we should have hope, we need to stay positive and think as positive as we can in any situation, and forgive as much as we