Rough Week

This past week has been incredibly hard. I woke up Thursday morning to hear tragic news from my hometown Thousand Oaks, California. At first I just received a text from my aunt telling me our family friend was safe and immediately I took to the internet to find out the terrible news. I couldn't believe that a shooting had happened in the safest place or a place I call home. It was devastating and so scary and simply hard to comprehend. Not even 24 hours later, there were fires that were threatening our area. Growing up in California we are known for fires but nothing like this had ever happened. I woke up early Friday morning to the news that my family had to be evacuated in the middle of the night because of the fires. All of Friday I was able to see familiar places completely destroyed. I was able to hear from my mom updates on not only my family and their safety but I also heard about families and friends houses who had burned down. It has been so hard to see photos of the place I call home facing destruction and sometimes, it has been too much to take. However, I want to point out how grateful I am for media during this hard time. I'm grateful that I was able to quickly find out the things on the shooting, or how I'm able to keep updated on the fires. Im grateful for text messages that allow us to quickly communicate messages of safety and updates and be able to stay in contact that way. I'm grateful for the messages of hope and pictures that were able to lift my spirits. While this has been a hard time, it has never been more clear to me how much media can be a tool and a helpful way to receive information and for that I'm grateful.