On December 31, during the third week of class, and the last day of 2019, everyone tended to have plans after class, including me. So I wore high heels and was dressed up for a party after class.

When everyone arrived in class, the teachers surprised us with a mission. We have to go out for interviews at Boeung Tamoak and Boeung Tompun lakes, we had six people and were separated into two groups.

Me and my group went to Boeung Tompun lake; it was a funny and busy day. When we arrived, we saw farmers in the lake so we agreed to get near the lake and ask her for an interview. Because the road is hard to walk on, I had to take off my shoes and walk on the hot ground to get near the lake. Luckily, we could borrow a boat from the farmer, but we did not really know how to ride it. It took around 15 minute to get near the farmer’s boat.

When the interview was underway for a few minutes, suddenly many police officers came after a thief. The thief ran into the lake near our boat. We stopped the interview and asked each other, “What happened?” Police shouted at the thief (“Get out of the water or you’ll see when I get you!”) and then they turned to us and asked us to ride back to them because they needed to borrow our boat. We were wondering, as the water is not deep, but they were not going to deal with getting in the water to catch the thief. It was really hard for us to ride the boat back when we are not good at riding boats. Hence, it took another 15 minutes to get back, and the thief was gone already.

We waited for the police to return our boat and finish our interview, under the hot sun — it was really hot and I felt my feet burning because I was standing on a plastic tube without shoes.

Moral of my story: Don’t wear high heels when you are a journalist or even during training time. Be ready! A mission can come anytime.