EDITOR’S NOTE: With our Opinion page series, A NEWSROOM VIEW, we hope provides readers with a window into what we do, why we do it and our connections to the community we serve. This week’s column is by page designer Robbie Robertson.

There are some things in life that you never forget. Your first kiss, your first date, your first car. The list could go on and on.

One of the things that I will never forget is the first time I worked for The Meridian Star. I was a young college student at Mississippi State and my good friend Rocky Higginbotham was working at The Star and encouraged me to try sports reporting.

My first game was Tuscaloosa Academy at Sumter Academy. Why that game, you ask? That’s easy. It was my first game and if I messed anything up, it wouldn’t really matter. That’s what you do with cub reporters. I’ll never forget how proud I was at my game story from that night. I had stats from both teams, quotes from both coaches, a little play-by-play, even a little history between the two teams. I had everything but the final score.

Fortunately, Austin Bishop and Parrish Alford gave me another chance. It wasn’t long after that that something else happened. I was in my second month at The Star when a sassy young lady walked in, blowing and going about some game. I was mesmerized by this blonde beauty with the sassy tongue. I eventually worked up the courage to ask her out, and eventually married her.

By the time the fall arrived, I had the ink in my blood. Here I was a 20-year old, along with another 20-year old in Rocky working Saturday night college football desk. Back then, The Star might have 10-12 pages for college football. And it was still cut and paste. At this point, I still hadn’t seen a Macintosh computer. Those were some wild nights but somehow we managed to get a newspaper out and not get fired.

Before long, The Star and Austin Bishop hired me as a full-time sports writer. It wasn’t long before I was assistant sports editor. It was in that time that I befriended Burl Denson and we played golf several times a week. Burl taught me a lot about newspapers, about what was right and what was wrong. Between him and my wife, Amy Hedrick, I soaked up all the newspaper I could.

I eventually left The Star and went to Pascagoula to work the news desk there and eventually become managing editor.

After five years in Pascagoula, I came back to The Star in 1999 to work the desk. It wasn’t long before I helped upgrade the newsroom computers to the Apple IMacs and bring The Star to the Internet age. I also remember being there when the computers turned to the year 2000 and nothing happened.

After a year or so, I jetted off to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo to be the copy desk chief. I loved Tupelo and learned a great deal from former Meridian Star editor Lloyd Gray, who is now back in Meridian.

I eventually came back home and became publisher of The Newton Record for six years before it closed. At that point, I thought my newspaper career was over. But some things are hard to get out of your system.

After another stint in Tupelo, I became a teacher and a coach at Leake Academy, where I still am today. It wasn’t long before I started writing sports again and helped The Star lay out a sports page from time to time.

Then came the new crew of Dave Bohrer and Alexander Gould. They offered me a chance to work part-time at The Star, laying out news pages once a week and filling in where I can.

While The Star may be in the same building, times have certainly changed. There is no press at The Star any more, our paper is printed in Tuscaloosa now. What used to take three people to do, now takes only one person. But in the end, it still comes down to one thing and that’s news.

I’ll never forget former Meridian Star publisher Ed Darling saying that “news is what people are talking about,” and I don’t believe that has changed in my 25-plus years in the industry.

Today, it’s just delivered in a different medium. There’s the Internet and social media. People want the latest news all of the time. There is no waiting until the next day to hold a hot scoop. Meanwhile, I realize that I have become an old-timer in the world of news. At 45, I’ve seen things that most people couldn’t imagine. I’ve even sent a few politicians to jail.

I don’t know how much longer I can continue to work multiple job but I suspect I’ll stay as long as they let me. After all, it’s hard to get that ink out of your blood.

Robbie Robertson works on the copy desk at The Meridian Star and is a 25-year veteran of the newspaper industry. Email rrobertston@themeridianstar.com.