"When You're In the Media"

"When you're in the media, you are the ones going out when there's a storm, a hurricane or an earthquake. You batten down your home, make arrangements with your family (if you have a husband and children), you pack a bag with things for a few days and you head out to the station."

When I was told this is year 2 of my 3 year programme by a senior lecturer I was taken aback at first. She went on to tell us how many holidays we may miss with our families, or how we'd have to work around it. I am a very family-oriented person, and although I knew all of this, it still hit me pretty hard. Spending Christmas with my family is so special to me; Staying at home with them during a hurricane and during storms, playing silly games is the norm for me - I asked myself "How can I break away from this way of thinking and embrace the life of the media?"

That was last year.

On Tuesday, I was told that a Tropical Depression was heading towards Jamaica. I am familiar with these depressions, some amount of rain and then we're good to go again. However, sometime between Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday night it turned into Tropical Storm Nicole. That's when my light, and possibly my water, went. The howling of the wind, the lightning, the rain.

The Storm was worse than a hurricane, because hurricanes don't tend to bring so much rain (and I mean there was A LOT of rain). It was an experience! It rained heavily non-stop from Tuesday night until Wednesday afternoon. It was not until Thursday that some persons (including me) were able to go outside their houses and see the extent of the damage.

Huddled around the battery-operated radio, on Wednesday night, my family and I heard the many stories of houses being washed away, of persons being injured, even killed. My heart cried. A family of 8 died when their house collapsed, a man was washed away in heavy waters, a little girl bludgeoned to death by a falling tree, three men died after their shed fell several feet due to land slippage.... and so the numbers grew.

When light finally came on Thursday evening we sat to watch the news. The stories, the pictures, the tears... I couldn't bring myself to watch the other station's news package. I prayed. I prayed for those that lost their homes, their belongings, their families.

In all this, I realized that my mindset about the media had changed; rather my mindset about me being in the media. I realized very quickly that deadlines were deadlines, rain or shine or whatever else. I had two essays due on Thursday and a news story due on Friday.

I had completed one of the essays from Monday, because of this new goal I have to stop waiting until last minute, and I emailed that one as soon as I got the chance; after which the lecturer sent an email stating that she will accept the essays on Monday instead (boo hoo). The other essay's deadline didn't change and I managed to get that one in on time also.

When my classmates were sending emails (which I received via my BlackBerry device) about their safety and pondering if classes will be held on Friday and if the assignment was pushed back, the department director simply replied "The assignment is still due on Friday at 1:45 pm". That was it. Rain or Shine we're in the media and the media never takes a break.

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The moment I knew my mindset had changed was at 8:30 Wednesday morning when I got up and headed to the bathroom, readying for school. My father asked if school was being held... and then it crossed me that I hadn't thought about that. I had not stopped to think about the fact that there was a possibility that school would be out, due to the storm... That's when I knew I have accepted being in the media.