When I applied to Next Generation Radio a few weeks ago, I never thought that I would soon be on a boat in Santa Barbara, interviewing a sea urchin diver about climate change, learning how to slurp urchin roe off the back of my hand.
I applied to this program because weather is something that connects everyone in the world, and yet, I hadn’t done any stories about climate change and wanted to talk to people about how the phenomenon had personally affected them. And after talking to divers, real estate agents, surfers, rowers and several other people from various backgrounds and industries, I was introduced to my subject, Jeff. I was excited to hear his story and learned a lot about myself and journalism (and sea urchins) in the process.
I learned that I had been thinking about climate change wrong — climate change is not something too big for me to discuss or learn about. In fact, it’s the complete opposite: climate change is affecting all of us in ways that I had never even imagined, and I want to be a part of the conversation surrounding it.
Also, no matter how many stories I will go on to do, I love that there is always going to be something that I don’t know about. After just one interview with Jeff, I learned more about the ocean and marine ecosystems than I had in my whole life.
Now that I’m in my fourth year of journalism school, I’m not working on as many stories, so I’m very thankful that through doing this project, I was able to be reminded of the indescribable feeling that takes over when someone trusts you with their story.
And most importantly, with the consistent help and support and optimism from my mentor, Jill, and everyone else on the Next Generation team, I have a story that I’m incredibly proud of.