Writing for a newspaper has been a life-long dream of mine. Seriously. I dressed up as a reporter for Halloween in the third grade, complete with a briefcase and pencil behind my ear. Although in practice, I learned a reporter’s gear is more like a 20 ounce Yeti filled to the brim with coffee and a tape recorder; and this year in particular, my signature supplies were hundreds of sticky notes up on my kitchen wall mapping out everything I needed to explore, research, investigate and explain, trying to keep up with the whirlwind of 2020.
I had the unique privilege of reporting “amid these unprecedented times,” which gave me an unending supply of questions, ideas and a need for a crash course on virology and epidemiology.
I started at the Daily Record on Feb. 26, 2020, just two weeks before the first Local Disaster Declaration was declared due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I barely met my colleagues before we went to work from home. In June, I sweat through my mask to take pictures of a Rally for Justice on the Square after a civil rights movement rumbled across the nation. In November, I ate an entire pizza in the newsroom waiting for the results of a historic election into the early morning hours. Just in time for the anniversary of my employment, I covered the aftermath of the disastrous Winter Storm Uri.
Although it was frustrating that I couldn’t do the work of five people to cover every single idea and issue I felt was important, I learned that the most valuable part of a journalist’s job is making people feel heard, and not the volume of my content. “It feels so good to be heard,” was something I was told often from the teachers, inmates, first responders, parents, activists, small business owners and concerned citizens I interviewed, whether or not their story made it into the paper. They knew media coverage didn’t necessarily mean change would come about, which is why many journalists, myself included, often enter the field. Hearing those words is what made me feel like I had done my job, and a service to the community, at the end of the day.
The good news is that anyone can do this kind of good for their community without being a journalist. I plan to do so even as I leave the field, by subscribing and supporting local journalism.
I don’t think people realize how small newsrooms are and how greatly we need your support to keep on covering what is important to you. The San Marcos Daily Record is not filled with pant suits in a skyscraper like the last journalistic blockbuster you saw; our one story building is populated by just a handful of hardworking, passionate individuals who care deeply about San Marcos, trying to share critical and complex information in an easily digestible way.
If you believe in transparency, holding our government accountable or telling stories of community, please subscribe to the Daily Record and as many other local news organizations that you can afford to support. More than that, listen to your neighbors, read the stories about them and make them feel heard by writing letters to the editor, sharing articles, advertising, sending thank-you notes and by voting.
Reporting in San Marcos has absolutely been a privilege and a pleasure. I’m very sad to go but grateful for the opportunity to serve the community.
