Reporter and new mother keeps balance in life

Editor’s note: The following feature was written by Somers Middle School seventh grade student Zina Loudermilk for a journalism project Sarah Walter’s class.

Since Maritsa Georgiou-Hamilton is a new mother, she has big shoes to fill being a news anchor, producer and reporter at KPAX.

Being able to be publicly recognized by people of the community when she goes out is just one of the many perks about her job. There are some tears in being so publicly recognized, like when she goes to the store in her pajamas to get some milk, or when she is having a bad hair day and someone recognizes her, she said.

She once had to speak with a mother the same day her child had been killed, and has had to see gruesome crime scenes and deceased bodies, making depressing subjects one of the worst parts about her job.

When she and her husband go out and something happens, she immediately turns into “reporter mode,” making her job not like a usual nine to five job.

Being a news reporter means that she usually doesn’t get a break, and she works almost every major holiday, and usually never has a weekend off.

“I have got to interview some pretty important people, like Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, and Michelle Obama,” Hamilton said.

She gets to see some pretty interesting things that other people don’t get to. She has a press pass, which gives her the opportunity to go “behind the scenes” at press conferences, and big events.

She said that there isn’t really anything particularly “weird” about her job, but that it is kind of weird when she has to do a cover on someone she knows. And, since it is a small state she knows a lot of people.

Also, she stated that she gets to pick her topics that she reports on, so that makes her work more familiar while on air.

She said that the news is always changing so they have to work with what is going on at the present time. As a working mom, Georgiou-Hamilton manages to fit every aspect of her life into a 24-hour time frame everyday.