Take Your Kid to Work: My day at NorthernLife.ca

It's take your kid to work day for all Grade 9's at St. Charles College today.

I decided to go with my dad. His name is Mark Gentili and he is the managing editor at Northern Life. I thought I would be sitting beside him all day and watching him work, and it turned out to be completely true.

When we arrived, I watched him work for about a half-hour before he showed me around the building. I also got to meet almost everyone who works here. When he finished showing me around, he taught me how to process photos and publish stories. The program they use to do all that is pretty complicated, but in 20 minutes or so, I got the hang of it.

We then proofed a page of the Nov. 5 edition of Northern Life. It was pretty easy to do — all I had to do is look for grammar and spelling mistakes, and highlight them. The parts that don't need editing are given a red checkmark.

There was a possible murder and an accident, so it was a pretty interesting day to be in the newsroom. I even had the chance to go to the scene where a man died, but I decided not to go. Today was certainly more interesting than school.

My dad even took me out for lunch today, which completely ruined the purpose of the delicious lunch that was packed for me. But I would take a poutine over a muffin, a small bag of popcorn, some grapes and a juice box any day.

In the end, I've ruled out becoming an editor as a career path. It's not that I didn't enjoy the day, but doing this every day is not for me. My day at Northern Life was more interesting than I thought it would be.

As my day nears completion, I may not know what I want to do as a career, but I sure do know what I don't want to do.