What Inspires Me: A Pursuit to Find Answers
The memory is etched in my mind. I was maybe four or five years old and had tagged along with my mother, a journalist, on one of her field reporting assignments. We were at her friend’s home, and I was told to wait in the living room on a pale yellow couch.
Within seconds, my mother disappeared down the hall. As I listened to hushed voices in the
background, my eyes peered around the blue wallpapered living room. On a polished-wood side table to my left sat a series of photos; a young mother with her daughters, a woman with her husband, a woman laughing.
background, my eyes peered around the blue wallpapered living room. On a polished-wood side table to my left sat a series of photos; a young mother with her daughters, a woman with her husband, a woman laughing.
I didn’t understand it at the time, but the woman in the pictures — the woman whom my mother was interviewing — was dying of lung cancer. She was undergoing a series of chemotherapy treatments in an effort to save her life. She was not going make it.
Could this woman’s final days have been made easier by having access to medical marijuana to help manage her pain? It was the central question posed by my mother, months later, when she wrote her Boston Globe article on New Hampshire’s efforts to decriminalize medical marijuana. Our tiny northeastern state known for its “Live Free or Die” motto was at the forefront of the medicinal use movement, and my mother was reporting on it.
When I later made the decision to pursue a career in journalism, this memory played a critical role. I knew that, in this career, I’d have the opportunity to examine and explain the issues effecting our country’s future. I’d also have the ability to ask questions that society needs answered and, most importantly, I knew that I’d be able to help give a voice to people that otherwise may not be heard. I realized early on that being a journalist came with an enormous amount of responsibility. This sense of responsibility is what inspires me every day.
So, whether I’m hunting down terrorist financiers funneling money to Hezbollah in the middle of a Paraguayan jungle town, interviewing President Clinton about the repatriation of offshore profits, quizzing billionaire investor Carl Icahn on his takeover plans for Dell, or discussing the importance of marine conservation with Richard Branson in the middle of the Caribbean Ocean — these are all opportunities for me to help explain or call attention to something that viewers may not have known.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thinking about what information I can learn and help communicate to others. I love being inspired by new people, exciting stories and brilliant ideas – and am always on the look out for what’s next.
