COLUMN: Reporting on tragedies is a humbling, eye-opening experience
When the battery of my phone died at about 10:15 a.m. on March 2, I breathed a sigh of relief.
It’d be a strange reaction to that scenario in any situation, but even more so given the circumstances: by that time, I was already an hour deep into covering the shooting in Campbell Hall that claimed the lives of Diva Davis and James Davis Sr.
It meant that I would be facing what was potentially the most dangerous situation I had encountered in my journalism career without the ability to stay in contact with my peers.
It also meant I could stop worrying about a phone that was being bombarded by notifications from loved ones. At least momentarily, I could stop answering the frantic calls and messages from friends and family asking if I was OK.
It meant I could stop answering that question with some refrain of “Yes, I’m alive, but no, I haven’t taken shelter because I’m following the police around wherever they go as they look for the suspect.”
During the first true “lockdown” scenario I’ve experienced while at Central Michigan University, when many of my peers were forced to stay within cramped classrooms and residence halls across campus for nearly six hours, I chose to run toward a potentially dangerous situation.
I had a similar experience this past summer, when I was among a small team of CM Lifers covering the historic June 22, 2017 flooding in Isabella County.
When large swaths of the community I had called home for the past few years was overtaken by flood water, I regularly found myself in the middle of the chaos.
I took a Facebook Live video of the Chippewa River as it swelled well past its usual waterline.
I spoke with residents of apartment complexes in front of their homes after they had been drowned from the inside out. People who watched as when flood waters forced sewage lines to back up into the building.
I spoke at length with a mother and her children taking residence in a Red Cross shelter set up in a local high school after she lost her second house in less than a month to the flooding.
In both instances, while I may have occasionally feared for my safety, never once did I question the importance of what I was doing.
I didn’t wish for a second that I was doing anything else.
In both instances, as stressful as they were, I knew I had the support of my fellow journalists and the community. People that relied on my ability to do my job to the utmost of my abilities so it could stay informed and stay safe during times of crisis.
I’ve covered plenty of stories that I’m proud of, but these were the stories that made me truly realize and appreciate the service I could provide to those around me through my chosen profession.
When I came the CMU to pursue an education in journalism, I came with the goal of exploring the communities around me and learning about the people within them.
Through the act of engaging with a community during its times of crisis, I’ve found not only a more intimate and sincere way of getting to know the world around me, but also renewed purpose as both a journalist and a person.
