Surprise!! I will be running my sixth Boston Marathon this year, and it will also be 10 years since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings which profoundly changed my life. I was running that year in 2013, and was five minutes away from finishing the race when the first bomb detonated. That moment, instead of running away, I decided to run towards the chaos as the second bomb went off trying to help in any way that I could, not having any medical background. After my experience, I decided I did not want to sit behind a desk working for public relations anymore. I knew I was meant to help people, so I made the decision to quit working in business and apply to nursing school, deep down knowing I wanted to work in trauma from that day forward, carrying with me what I learned that day at the finish line. I am proud to say I am now a Trauma ICU nurse, most recently working at MGH in the Neuro ICU as a travel RN. There truly is not a day that goes by where I don't think about what happened to the innocent people at the finish line and what they had to endure, but that experience personally has helped me become a more compassionate nurse gaining knowledge in how to treat injuries when disasters occur. This year, I am running for the MGH Emergency response team, that was heightened after the bombings in 2013, providing critical funding to the hospital’s emergency medicine and disaster preparedness efforts that benefit victims worldwide. Marathon funds support the training and resources needed to develop a carefully integrated response that spans multiple departments throughout the hospital and ensures that Mass General is ready for the next disaster. Thank you in advance for your donation to my fundraising project on GivenGain!