Reporting Live from Grant Park…
Tuesday November 4th will go down in my history books. On this day not only was the first african american president elected, but it was a the longest day of my life.
My day started off at 5am. I had to go vote. I felt that if I didn’t vote I would feel left out. I was to be at my internship at 7am. I got ready and left my house at exactly 5:50am. When I arrived to my polling place there was a line of people waiting outside. It was unbelievable, I thought I was going to be late to the office, but I was going to vote regardless. The line moved quickly, I got in and out.
On my way to the office, as I was driving down lakeshore drive I noticed that I forgot my work ID. I got nervous and called my boss, but she told me it wouldn’t be a problem. I got to the office and my team was ready to go. We set out to different polling places in Chicago to interview people on their voting experience. We went to different locations, becuase both the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Public School would not let us film inside. It was until we arrived to a Chicago Park District where we actually interviewed people and got B-roll of the voting. The people there were very nice and even gave us breakfast.
We had to go back to the office to edit the package and get our gear and head to Grant Park. We did just that and when the Fedex arrived, he brought in an ID for me that was sent from Los Angeles with my corrected name, which was screwed up on the original. John, the camera man, edited and sent the package to Los Angeles and we were on our way.
When we arrived to Grant Park, we were checked all over. We had to open laptops, cameras, bags, and everything else you could think of that we were carrying. There were dogs sniffing all our stuff and secret service agents looking around our stuff, trying to find something suspicious. We finally were on our way. It was exciting seeing all the media that was there from all parts of the world. We were next to BBC and Rueters, they were very nice and excited to be in Chicago. All Chicago media was there too, FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, WGN, Univision, Telemundo. It was incredible, more incredible was that some of the reporters knew me. We practiced live shots over and over till we went live at 2pm. Coordinating live shots, interviews, and updating information was my job.
During the madness of it all I had the chance to meet Common, Edna Schmidt (the Barbara Walters of Spanish media), Will.i.am., Rev. Jesse Jackson and Jesse Jackson Jr, Omorasa, Alderman from Chicago, Gail (Oprah’s best friend), Sway from MTV, some reporter for the show Extra, and the list goes on and on.
My night ended till 3a.m. It was all worth it. I can now tell my kids and grandchildren that I was there covering the election of the first african american president. An experience I will never forget…
