I was so tired of doing nothing. I had to do something.
As the typical story goes, I always had a passion for journalism ever since my childhood. I was the nerd who kept up with news and politics even in the fourth grade. I attended my first protest at eight years old, despite not really understanding why exactly I was there, but still having a general idea of why people were upset. It was during the Great Recession in 2008, and I consider that my first real taste of politics and activism specifically.
I always found myself looking up to the reporters I’d see while watching the news with my parents. There was something about their job that always appealed to me. I knew from a young age that this was a field that I wanted to get into, but I felt discouraged at the same time. Growing up in school I would always have teachers tell me that writers and artists would never be able to make a living and that I needed to do something else. I reluctantly accepted that I just would never be able to make it as a writer.
Entering the job market, I started with all the standard high school graduate hustles like shelf-stocking and food service. I hated it all so much, not only because I am a disabled person with many chronic health problems who was putting too much strain on their body, but because I felt like I was wasting my life. I felt so lost and there was nothing pushing me to make a change, but on top of my deteriorating health, there was something that finally caused me to snap and go for my true passion anyway.
Journalists have always faced danger in the field, especially during war coverage. This is something I already knew, but it’s one thing to read about it in textbooks or articles, it’s a whole other experience to see it on your own social media feed. Since 2023, I have been directly watching footage of the genocide in Gaza. Regardless of your personal views or beliefs, it is important to remember that many humanitarian and human rights organizations have confirmed that this conflict is and should be considered a genocide. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, UNRWA, Amnesty International and Jewish Voice For Peace are just a few examples. However, even with all of these groups, scholars, academics and professionals in genocide providing their evidence, people will still deny that Gaza is facing a genocide. I myself have been watching thousands of people, including babies, die on my own screen, and that alone is plenty of evidence for me.
Among the countless journalists slaughtered in Gaza was Hossam Shabat, who I had been following on Twitter (also called X, but I personally refuse to call it such). It was so sudden, one day I just opened my feed and he was gone. His team posted that he had been killed in a targeted airstrike on his vehicle. This happened the same day that Mohammed Mansour was killed in a separate attack. Shabat’s colleague, Anas Al-Sharif, was killed in August 2025 in a strike that also killed his own colleagues – Mohammed Qreiqeh, Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa. Al-Sharif’s nephew was also killed.
According to several sets of data from multiple sources, including the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, up to 274 journalists have been
killed as of August 2025. This number continues to rise though, and it’s really difficult to put a definitive count on the death toll in Palestine from 2023 alone. Keep in mind that the oppression and torture that Palestinians face has been going on since roughly 1948, when the Nakba occurred. An estimated 750,000 Palestinians were violently removed from their homes and land in this event.
All of this weighs heavily on me and brings me to tears as I write this. No one should be killed or punished just for documenting the crimes against their own people. I spent most of the first several months of 2023 in a state of frozen terror and shock. I wasted a lot of time bedrotting, doomscrolling and feeling nihilistic about the world. It was getting so hard to see the good in humanity as I watched countless innocent people die, people that I’ve been following and getting to know through their posts.
However, I also saw their resilience. I started to follow and engage with Palestinian aid and charity groups such as Friend Ship Gaza, Gaza Direct Aid and Care For Gaza. I got to see footage, videos, photos and posts of Palestinians receiving much needed support and basic needs. I follow many Palestinians, a lot of them being students themselves, and I see them find ways to find beauty in life amidst absolute horror. They are human beings, they are not terrorist enemies that we need to fear.
Feeling inspired, and finally having enough of doing nothing, I decided on a whim to apply for Point Park because their digital journalism degree caught my eye. I was not expecting to get in at all, but here I am now. Even though I’m not in the best financial position, and my
disabilities limit me pretty severely, I have absolutely no regrets about this decision. My grief is easier to cope with now knowing that I’m doing something, even if it’s small.
To me, journalists are heroes, and I had to find a way to honor these fallen heroes. Journalism is activism, it’s a form of resistance because truth scares the oppressor. The oppressor sees the truth as a threat. I want to fight back in the ways that I can, since I’m so limited in what I can do. If journalism is all I end up doing, then I’m okay with that, and I’m also okay with all the risks that come with it. You can arrest me, try to scare me or even kill me, but I will still speak the truth up until my last breath.
