Column: What I learned from Samantha Middendorf

Stephanie Markham, News Editor

Samantha Middendorf challenged me more than any other editor or reporter I have ever worked with — and I will forever be grateful for that.

As news editor, I’m supposed to be the one who knows what I’m doing.

I’ve been working for The Daily Eastern News nonstop since I was a freshman, so at this point, I should have some idea how to do news.

Or at least, I should be able to keep my staff editors on track.

I’m supposed to tell them what stories they need to write, how to deal with difficult sources, how to manage daily deadlines while somehow passing their classes, and so on.

Being an editor is so much more than just editing.

I was nervous to start my job this semester.

I’m not a natural leader. I don’t exude confidence.

I’m quiet and shy and honestly sometimes I have no idea why I decided to be a journalist.

And Samantha didn’t make my job any easier.

From the beginning, I knew she didn’t take me very seriously.

That made me mad. That made me second-guess myself.

But more importantly, that made me step my game up.

I told everyone budgets for week one of fall semester were due by the end of June. I don’t think I got an entertainment budget until a few days before classes started.

There were times when I would try to be serious with her. I would try to be angry and tell her what needs to get done. But my bad mood couldn’t touch her.

She would look at me and smile the entire time, then start explaining what she has been up to.

By the end of the conversation, we would both be smiling and working out a solution to the problem.

Samantha and I had opposite personalities, which is why I think it was difficult for us to connect at first.

I always called her Sam even though I knew she preferred Samantha, and looking back, I have no idea why.

But as the semester went on, we both made progress.

Not only has her writing improved beyond what I ever expected, but she has also trained reporters at a rate I have never been able to.

Most of the new reporters who came in for News Writing 1 would head straight to the entertainment desk, and Samantha knew exactly how to work with them and build their skills up to the next level.

We will have good writers for years because of her.

She and I eventually found some common grounds.

Even if it was just that we both loved concerts, Shakespeare and writing, I’ll never forget those conversations we had when we were able to push work aside for a moment.

There were some ideas Samantha had that sadly she never accomplished, but with the passion and determination she had developed for covering her beat, there’s no doubt in my mind that she would have with time.

I can still hear her words in my head, as she sat adjacent to me at the conference room table on an early Sunday afternoon, smiling as usual whether she wanted to be there or not, and explained her failed attempt at a series exploring what students do in Doudna after hours.

“I walked up to a girl and said I was with The Daily Eastern News, and she started laughing at me.”

News meetings will never be the same without her humor, her optimism, that big smile that accompanied her laugh — a laugh filled with heart and soul that put the whole room under her spell.

And I have learned more working with Samantha than I ever could have in a classroom or in any other setting.

I learned not to take myself too seriously.

I learned to laugh now and then while I’m writing and editing all night.

I learned to find a way to make connections with people who are different from me.

I learned who I am as a writer, an editor, a journalist and a human being — just by knowing and having the privilege to work with someone as dynamic and amazing as Samantha Middendorf.

Stephanie Markham is a junior journalism major.

She can be reached at 581-2812

or [email protected].