I heard sirens and saw flashing lights tonight. I looked out my window and saw they were stopped a couple blocks from my house. So I put on my coat, picked up my jacket, left my apartment and walked toward them.
Is this normal behavior? Do normal people hear sirens and think, “Oh man, there could be something cool to see over there. I better get there before it’s over.”? Somehow I don’t think so.
I have a tendency that I think a lot of reporters have. I can’t escape from work. Even when I’m not at work, I’m always thinking about story ideas. Every time I see flashing lights or hear a siren, my head turns like in The Exorcist and I wonder what’s happening. I hear a statistic and wonder how that applies to me or to my city or my neighborhood. It’s kind of a sickness.
I worry sometimes that I get too caught up. I don’t wish for bad things to happen to people, but by god when they do, it means a good day for me. I hear sirens and my first instinct is not, “Oh god, what happened? Is everyone ok?” It’s “Awesome. This could be a good story.” I hear that a neighborhood along the river is underwater because a huge ice jam broke and instead of getting as far away from there as possible, I think I need to get closer so I can find people who got out safely and talk to them about what happened.
The problem is not that I have these instincts. They make me a damn good reporter. The problem is that I can’t turn them off. They don’t end when I leave work for the weekend. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
