For the first time since 1996, I spent a morning in an elementary school cafeteria this week.

Let me just tell you, it was exactly as I remembered it.

Given the sights, the smells and the deafening level of noise, I could have sworn I was 10-years-old and walking through the halls of Indian Lakes Elementary School. But, alas, I was not. On Wednesday, I was a guest speaker at Mt. Zion Elementary School’s Career Day.

That said, I need to keep my end of a bargain and stop right here to give a little shout-out to Ms. Byrd’s second grade class, Ms. McIntosh’s fourth grade class, Ms. McMullen’s third grade class and Ms. McCoy’s Early Start classes.

The students were excellent and asked great questions, and hopefully they learned a little something about how the newspaper comes together each day.

As wonderful as their questions were, however, my favorite part of our time together came from their answers. To start off our session together, I asked the classes one simple question: What does a reporter do?

Here were some of my favorites:

They tells us what the news is going to be and everything else

– Casey

A reporter is somebody who gets the news for people who don’t have T.V.

– Jenna

You take reports that you put it all in the newspaper. It’s like news on TV, but you like put it on a sheet of paper

– Huey

A reporter is someone that, like, if there is a basketball game, they tell you what happened at it

– Karisma

Reporting is telling people what they have done

– Kayron

They put the newspapers in the mail box

– Sequoia

Tell people how to get jobs

– Patrick

Write about people who are famous

– Caitlyn

I think they type words in the computer

– Nyjohna

Writes words

– TyRell

And my all-time favorite:

They write a report about someone and help the planet

– Noah

Thanks, Mt. Zion, for a wonderful morning!