THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606070235
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Linda McNatt
LENGTH: 79 lines
It was a highlight of my career in newspapers a couple of years ago when I happened to be talking to a young reporter at a smaller paper in the area. When I told her my name, she stopped the conversation and quickly told me that I was the reason she had gone into journalism.
Sure makes me feel old, but it seems that this young woman was a seventh-grader at Driver Intermediate School some years ago when I just happened to be working for that same small paper she was with. I went into her classroom to talk with the students about writing for newspapers.
Something I said those many years ago made a difference in the life of at least one person.
Last week, I had an opportuntity to do it again.
I hope I made a difference to at least one youngster at Carrollton Elementary School, when the school held its third annual career day.
Guidance counselor Cindy Matthews called and asked me to take part in it, and, when I was tempted to say I was simply too busy, I remembered the young reporter.
Writers are born, I think. Journalists probably can be trained and educated and molded. But still, there has to be a deep, abiding love for the written word from the very beginning.
I can't remember when I didn't know I wanted to write. I can never recall ever thinking I would do anything else. And I still clearly remember that class project I did in the seventh grade.
The topic was careers. A Portsmouth resident had just recorded a song that climbed quickly to the top of national charts. Few others probably remember ``High School U.S.A.'' But I do. And I remember tracking down Tommy Facenda and interviewing him for my class project.
Back then, I told all of my classmates that someday I would be interviewing movie stars and recording artists. Well, I've done that. Not exactly on the scale I was thinking about at the time. But I have found satisfaction in every minute of my seventh-grade career choice.
At Carrollton, I had an opportunity to tell the youngsters about that project and to tell them about my love for writing.
I was stationed in one classroom while fourth- and fifth-graders made their way from room to room around the school.
There was a chef, a restaurant manager, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard, a chemist, a tranportation supervisor, an author, a representative from the local meat packing industry, an architect.
Students in the lower grades - kindergarten through third - got to meet and talk with a Virginia state trooper, a forestry expert, an engineer, a member of the U.S. Army, a nurse from Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters, a cook, a cake decorator and a social worker.
I was in Room 307, Mrs. Calhoon's fourth-grade class, and I started with those youngsters. Mrs. Calhoon was absent that day, the students had a substitute. But, in case she's interested, they were perfect ladies and gentlemen, every one of them.
As was each participant in career day, I was assigned a helper. Kevin Pace, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, very capably and quietly did everything I asked. He ran the video provided by The Virginian-Pilot's Newspapers in Education office about getting a story in the paper. He took my camera and went out into the other rooms to take pictures for me when I couldn't get away from the students. He was well-mannered and mature, a perfect choice for the job.
I cautioned the youngsters, if they happened to be thinking about a career in journalism, that they weren't looking at a 9 to 5 job. I told them they could look forward to getting hauled out of bed early, staying up late and never being able to leave their jobs when they left their place of work.
It is always with you, always in your thoughts. In this job, you don't live for today. You live for tomorrow and next week and next month. Batteries frequently would come in handy so you can keep going and going.
But there is deep satisfaction, I said. You hear about the good you do, whether it's a story about an elderly woman who gets her house vandalized and is helped so much by her community or a child with a disease or handicapping problem who was helped by something you wrote.
There is deep satisfaction when somebody tells you that something you wrote was clipped from the newspaper years ago and is being kept in the family Bible.
And there is satisfaction and humor when you hear something like I did just a couple of weeks ago: ``Hey, after I read what you wrote about me, I was much more impressed with myself.''
I enjoyed my morning at Carrollton Elementary. I hope I said something that mattered. by CNB