Journey Jamison (8:02)

Bill Russell is a comedy writer, performer and voiceover artist as well. You might have also seen Bill performing at Chicago's Second City Theater or heard him in commercials and videos for Disney on Ice or Monster Energy Supercross. So next up is a story from Journey Jamison. Journey told this at a main stage that we did earlier this year here in New York. And the theme of the night was Eye of the Storm. Here's Journey live at the Moth.

Journey Jamison (8:34)

When I was nine years old, my best friend died. We spent the entire day together at an amusement park in She'd Been struggling to breathe. So when we got home, her dad tried to get her as much help as she could, but it just wasn't enough. And at 3:00 that morning, she died of an asthma attack. It was always really hard for me to deal with because I'd helped her with her asthma before, and I just felt like I could have done something. So five years later, when my mother and I found ourselves at a grassroot gunshot wound, first aid training, I was immediately intrigued. Now, some of you might be thinking, gunshot wound, first aid, what? But I'm from Chicago. And the lack of resources in our communities makes that training so much more important. We don't have any trauma centers on the south side of Chicago where I'm from. So I knew the importance of this training and I paid attention. I sunk my teeth in. I got trained two months later, and I'd been doing workshops all over the city. Yeah, I knew how to apply an occlusive dressing with a credit card, but I was still just a regular teenager. And so the following summer, I was coming home from my very first date. I come home, I turn on the tv, I crank up the AC just like any other day. And then I hear it back to back. Gunshots that sounded like they were right next to me, just back to back to back. And I just thought to myself, is this real? Is this serious? You hear all the time about gun violence in Chicago, but I'd never come face to face with it like that before. So I jump in gear. I know that I have this training that I can help people, but I know that the first step to being a first aid responder is knowing that the scene is safe and prioritizing my own safety. So I glance out the window and I'm staring almost like I can see through the window. And I'm like, what is going on? I'm seeing people who are kind of running away from a gas station towards my apartment complex. And I knew I had the tools to help. And I never imagined going outside and putting myself in danger to help anybody. But it turns out that I didn't have to, because seconds later, my back door flies open and A young man, 19 years old, comes in holding his neck. It's blonde. And he's just saying over and over again, I've been shot. Can you help me? Can you help me? And without hesitation, I just said, yes. And from that moment, it was autopilot. I lay him down on the floor. I'm asking him questions about who he is. I asked him first can I call 911 for you? Because we emphasize that a lot in our first aid trainings that you had to ask for consent for people because they're their own person. Bodily autonomy, right? So I asked him. He says yes. I get on the phone with the operator, giving me a bit of a hard time. But I put my feelings aside and prioritize the safety of the wounded. They say they're sending a person on the way. I say thank you. I go back to PETA. I'm asking him more questions about who he is. I want him to feel safe. He tells me where he's from. The same apartment complex that I'm from, Oakwood Shores. He tells me he wants to go to college, that he's 19, that he's confused. And then I kind of realized I'm taking this all in. I'm 15 years old. I'm home alone with a man who's been shot in the neck, and I'm giving him first aid. I should probably call my mom. So I take up my phone, and I guess you can call it a mother's intuition, because as soon as I am about to press call, my phone rings. It's my mom. She's like, hi, Journey. I'm like, hi, Mom. She's like, what's up? I'm like, mom, you are not going to believe this. There's a man. He's in my house. Fire. Gunshot wound. He's on the floor. I'm giving him a first aid. She's like, are you serious? I'm like, no, Mom. Why would I lie about this? She's like, okay, okay, okay. And I can hear the car unlocking and the car starting up. And I'm like, okay. She's on her way. Good. So for a second there, it's just me and PETA, and I'm trying to examine exactly what is happening. He has two wounds, an entrance wound and an exit wound. The bullet went through his neck and up through his jaw. So I'm trying to apply pressure on both sides to get his blood to clot so the bleeding can slow down. A few seconds later, my mom comes. And you would think that she might be, like, kind of hysterical, kind of crazy, but she's not because she'd been through the training, too. And for a few moments, it's calm. Peter's calming down. His blood is starting to clot. The bleeding is not so drastic, and it's calm. And then somehow, someway, people start to flood into my house. Bystanders, I guess, who had seen what was going on. And my mom, she does a great job at keeping PETA's privacy, keeping questions away from him so that he's not getting more stressed out. Shout out to my mom. She's in the audience. And so we're just kind of juggling this thing. Me and my mom were doing this together. I'm taking care of PETA's body. She's taking care of PETA's surroundings. And then the police come. And I feel like it's not a secret that black and brown people are not trusting of law enforcement. Quite frankly, it just makes us anxious. And my mom, she didn't want that kind of energy in our house. She was trying to persuade them, like, there's no crime scene here. Can you wait outside? We don't. It's very crammed in our apartment. But eventually, she gave up her battle when they threatened to arrest her. And so eight police officers crowd into our tiny apartment just watching me apply pressure to this young man. And after the police come, after my mom gets there, the fire department finally gets there. Not the ambulance, but the fire department. So that just gives you a glimpse of what health care is like in Chicago. Okay. The ambulances don't really come to our communities that fast. So the fireman gets there, and he's going in to check PETA's vitals, and I have my hands over his neck, and he says, you need to take your hand away. And I was so overwhelmed, and I just had all these feelings of doubt, and I just reluctantly pulled my hand away. And just as I thought, he starts bleeding again. And I'm just looking at the guy like. And then another fireman comes in, and he says, actually, she needs to put her hand back there. You're doing a good job. And I looked at him, and I said, okay. I knew it. So I am continuing to apply pressure and keep my hand on his wound while they're taking his vitals and preparing him to get in the ambulance. So then few. Maybe five or six minutes later, the ambulance does come. They take him on a gurney, they take him away. Luckily, my mom was able to get some information from his mentor who was there, so we could follow up with him later. So my mom, she rushes all these people out of our house, And I go outside, and it's so chaotic. The ambulance is there, the police are there, My neighborhood is there. The news station is there. And they're kind of looking to me like this, Shero. And I'm kind of very overwhelmed. And so instead of fielding questions, I took My story with me and my experience with me. And I went back inside, I closed the door, I wash my hands, I grab my cell phone and my keys, and me and my mom get in the car. I zone out, and I'm just replaying in my mind what just happened. Then I snap out of my trance, and the car stops, and we're at the beach. And I'm just like, oh, my God, what is going on? And she looks at me and she's like, come on. And I'm like, okay. And we proceed to join a group of women on the sand doing yoga. And my mom just looks at me in her tree position and she goes, self care. And I was like, okay. And I was just so grateful, you know, that I had a mom who emphasized that a lot when I was growing up and that I had the opportunity to really process what just happened in my life, right? So that happened. And then I resume my life as a normal teenager. I go to camp, Conflict resolution camp, by the way. But I go to camp. I go to camp in Maine, and then I come back and I'm in the car with my mom, and she's like, hey, you know, I got in touch with Peter's family, and, you know, he thinks you saved his life, right? And I had never thought about it like that. For me, I was just in the right place at the right time with the right information, and I did the right thing. But to him, I saved his life. So that's what it was. So a few days later, I seen him, I visited him, and I said, hey, look, I know it was really cool that I was able to help you, but I was trained to do that, and I was equipped with the right tools. So how cool would it be if you were. Were equipped with the same tools and you could help your mom or your brother? And he's like, that sounds pretty interesting. I'm like, so do you want me to, like, I can set up a training. I can set up a workshop. I'll come to you. He's like, I bet. So about two or three months later, we were able to train his whole entire family of about like, 25 people, ranging from 3 years old to 60 years old. And. And we trained his whole family in his apartment. And it was the most empowering thing for me. Maybe some of you are saying, oh, I'm so sorry this young girl had to go through that, but it's not something I feel embarrassed about or sad about. It was the most changing thing that I've ever been through. And it showed me the circle of change. You know, you go to school and you learn about stories and you learn about how there's a plot. And that plot is like a hill. It starts, you know, the beginning, then the rising action, then the climax, the falling action, and then the resolution, right? But change, instead of it being a hill, it's like a circle. And me training his family was this entire experience coming full circle because I started at a training just like that one. And so maybe he could do something like I did or I could do more things, you know, it was so empowering for me as a 15 year old girl to have that kind of experience. So it changed my life for the better and it showed me that I can change the world if I wanted to. Right? And I guess it just kind of made me feel like I didn't have to be afraid anymore of where I'm from, of my community. I didn't have to fear walking outside because I was empowered with the tools that I had. And I thought about it and I hear all the time, you know, children are the future. And I'll tell you guys, I'm a child, I'm a teenager, and it's super intimidating, you know, like, it's like 400 years of slavery, an eternity of sexism. It's intense, you know, and you guys, and you guys are like, and you guys are like, it's you, it's you. And I'm like, oh my God. But this experience showed me that I don't have to be the future because I can be right now. Thank you.

Journey Jamison (20:32)

That was Journey Jamison. Journey is a member of Ujima Medics, a small black grassroots health collective that trains in urban first aid and is an intern at Sacred Keepers Sustainability Lab where she organizes community events to confront the intersection of environment and racial injustice. Her driving principle for bringing what she calls holistic health to the hood has had her featured on WBEZ's Every Other Hour. Also mike.com she was also on the 2018 United State of Women Summit. So we have a feeling this is not going to be the last time that you hear from Journey. So keep an eye out for her. That's all for this week. We've got a quick heads up for you. Actually, we have a very special occasion coming up. It's the 10th anniversary of the Moth podcast and we were thinking about it. We would be nothing without, without you, the listeners, obviously. So to celebrate, we've got a special listener hosted episode coming out in just a couple of weeks. Tanya Scott Williams. She's a longtime listener from Montgomery, Alabama. She's going to step in and host an episode and share a few of her favorite Moth stories with you to celebrate that 10th anniversary of the podcast. Until then, we hope you're well and from all of us here at the Moth in New York, have a story worthy week.

Intuit (21:55)

Dan Kennedy is the author of Loser Goes First, Rock on and American Spirit. He's also a regular host and storyteller with the Moth.