Yesterday, I was faced with the toughest situation after I worked at Columbia Missourian. Clivia and I were doing a story about how international students were affected by the ICE policy. However, yesterday, the government rescinded this policy, which means all works we had done were in the wrong direction. But thanks to Katherine, our editor, she gave us practical advice and said what we needed to do was trying our best to reach out to people and rearrange our story. It finally turned out good.
I learned a lot fromI learned a lot from this experience. This similar thing might happen if I would become a journalist in the future. Therefore, when something happened like this, I can calm down and think about what I can do to save this story. Sometimes, unfortunately, the story should be given up no matter how much effort you spend. Although we were lucky enough that our story could be published on time, we need to learn to give up because we cannot be lucky all the time.
I am very grateful to people I interviewed and people who helped me find the sources. They were so nice and patient because I interviewed them for several times due to the change in policy. If I could meet them in person, I will say “thank you so much” to them.
Larissa Gao 