Well, two years as a journalist has changed all that.
At 28, I've witnessed horrors and empathized with people suffering the loss of loved ones, and feeling some personal loss at the same time. As a reporter I've had to seek out and sympathetically try to get information from relatives of someone who died either from a murder, accident or other unnatural tragedy. All in all, I've witnessed a lot of suffering in the world, a lot of which haunts me to this very day.
At this stage in my life, however, I am at a cross-roads philosophically speaking. As a practicing Buddhist, my understanding of the world is based on the notion that suffering is a part of life - birth, aging, sickness and death, the Four Sufferings as they are called, exist for all life, and as a young reporter, I've simply had to witness and experience it in order to write about it in the paper.
At the same time, being witness to the sheer volume of suffering has at times been overwhelming to the complementary aspect of my Buddhist faith that we can overcome this suffering in order to lead genuinely fulfilling and meaningful lives.
So, in short, as a witness to the suffering of the world, I still feel a gleam of hope that people, including myself, can learn to understanding the reason why people suffer and work to transform it into something positive and meaningful.
And fortunately, in my short career as a reporter, I have witnessed these transformations on a regular basis. Surrey-North MP Chuck Cadman is one example, as are the parents of Grant DePatie (the Maple Ridge gas station attendant who was dragged for several kilometres trying to prevent two drivers from stealing gas).
If there's anything I hope you can get from this short biography is knowing how deeply I feel about my experiences so far in my life and career. As with anyone, there are good days that help me appreciate everything I have, and bad days that push me to the limit of my convictions. But in the end, I've gained a wealth of knowledge and experience that makes up the journey of my life.
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