laura hough smith

A few weeks ago marked a year since I left my job at a daily newspaper for a new journey.
After taking a few weeks off from work, I embarked on one of the most rewarding, humbling and awesome years of my life. I became a teacher.
I was terrified, but I’d prayed about this career shift and knew I was following my heart. I decided to go where it led me.
At Washington School, I found a group of administrators, teachers and students who are awe-inspiring.
I approached this “job” with much trepidation and fear.
Many seasoned teachers told me not to smile on the first day and to keep not smiling until the last day of school. I followed that advice. I was a million months pregnant when the school year began, so it wasn’t hard; just ask my students. I was firm and definitely strict from Day 1.
I began my maternity leave on the day Mary Finley was born, and a couple of weeks later, I was surprised to find myself missing those kids. Through all my reprimands, threats and pop quizzes, those sixth-, ninth- and 10th-graders had worked their way into my heart. I loved them all, although I didn’t tell them this until the last week, when I, of course, cried in telling them how adorable they are. It was the truth, though, and those students will never know how special they are to me.
The students, bar none, are the best part of teaching, but fellow teachers make the roughest days bearable and even enjoyable.
With a new baby at home and some other challenges, the year wasn’t always easy for me. How many times did the teacher next door cover my homeroom so I could take my postpartum hormones in the bathroom and pull myself together?
Other first-year teachers buoyed me, and teachers with years of experience let me vent, gave the best advice and sometimes just nodded their heads in knowing, seen-it-all reassurance. I have so much to learn from all of them. It is a privilege to teach, and I am honored to work among these great professionals at this great school.
It was a year that was wonderful and tough at the same time, and I learned as much as the students. I hope that continues.
This year, in addition to teaching English, I’ll teach journalism.  To share such a huge part of my life and heart with these students is so exciting for me. I wouldn’t trade my experiences as a journalist for anything. From Vicksburg to Hernando, I had the best seat in the house to the greatest show on earth: life in Mississippi. I was trained to be objective, so I saw the faults here but fell in love nonetheless with Mississippi and Mississippians. I detonated a civil war-era cannon ball with ATF agents in Vicksburg. I saw former presidents Bush and Clinton in Jackson. I met the members of classic rock bands in Southaven and I rode along on a drug bust in Hernando.
The memories I cherish most though aren’t flashy. They’re the mom who trusted to me to tell the story of her late son’s fight with cancer. They’re a high-five between a rector and a student when a 100-year-old episcopal school won a reprieve from closure. They are daily visits with John Black. Having covered education briefly in DeSoto county and for a longer period in Warren County, many many educators stand out, as well.
I remain über passionate about newspapers and journalism, and I’m so thankful to be teaching the next generation of reporters and photographers.
I hope to pass on the best two pieces of advice i received as a journalist. They’re from my dear first editor – a bulldog of an editor. She is tough as nails and taught me everything I know.
She asked me once to think about a little boy pulling his brand-new, shiny wagon down the street; like any child, he’s so proud of that new toy. He just wants to tell someone about it.
She told me that everyone has a little red wagon. It was my job to find it.
Lastly, I’ll share what that seasoned editor said when I didn’t know where to start a story or what to tell the readers. A decade after I left her paper, I’d call, stuck, and she’d say the same thing she’d said for years: Write what you know.
Many times after a shooting at midnight or a long interview with a great author, I’d find myself at the keyboard with my eyes closed, searching for a lede. When I remembered to write what I knew – just the facts – the story began to flow.
This year will be only minimally easier than the last, I’m sure. However, there are a couple things I can count on: I will learn from those fellow teachers, my students will teach me as much as I teach them, and hopefully, I’ll inspire my journalism students to write what they know.

© Laura Hough Smith and laurahoughsmith, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Laura Hough Smith and laurahoughsmith with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.