Olivia Crane

Hometown: Monroe Township, NJ Professor: Teresa Politano Class: Digital News Reporting and Writing Takeaway: Writing this piece forced me to confront the reality happening around me. Before interviewing my father -- the only member of my household at that point who’d had any regular contact with the outside world – COVID was an abstract concept, a scary shadow lurking just outside my view. Talking with my dad about his experiences revealed this new reality to be a lot less scary than my mind had conjured it to be. Ultimately, writing this piece taught me the importance of journalism in uncovering the realities of a world we may be unable to see firsthand. While journalism is often meant to highlight the scary realities that people try to ignore, it is also a tool to show people the manageable and far less frightening realities of the issues that keep them up at night.