Occasionally, we get a chance to talk with students about what we do for a living. I was invited to Pearl River Middle School to speak this morning with three classes of seventh-graders during the school’s annual career day about being a reporter.

The trouble with being a reporter in today’s multi-platform media-savvy world is there’s not a whole lot to show large groups of people unless you have a PowerPoint presentation on hand.

I just talked. Visually not much to show, frankly.

Several of the other presenters had more photo-worthy jobs and activities, including Dina Casale, who had her sixth-graders doing push-ups in the gym.

It always surprises me what students will find interesting.

The first group of students got a description of my first years as a reporter, but i don’t think they quite understood what carbon paper is.

I was a little more modern with the other two groups, having learned my lesson, but two questions came up for all three groups: Do I make up the information in my stories and what was the most disgusting story I ever wrote.

Making up stories or knowingly printing false information is a firing offense, not to mention illegal. I had a nice discussion with one class about the difference between libel and slander.

The most disgusting story, however, appeared to rivet the students to their seats and had to do with the recovery of a drowning victim when I was working in Michigan 20 years ago.

I won’t print the details since they are—well, disgusting. I just hope no one decides on a newspaper career solely in the hopes of writing stories on disgusting topics!