What do you get when you bring a knight, a nurse, a football player and a teacher to Paul D. Camp Community College? Why, a photoshoot, of course. They were all kindergarteners, and they were dressed up as what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Luckily, all of their parents were there, or I probably would have never pulled it all off — I’m definitely not teacher material. Though after I asked S.P. Morton Elementary School’s Jakylah Diggs to pose for a picture pretending to teach the other children about the letter ‘S,’ I’m confident she is.

Still, it was a fun time and there were a lot of laughs around the room, as I got them to try out various poses for what would become the cover for one of our new features this year.

Many months ago, when we were thinking about the special section tabloids that we put out, we were considering some new ideas to potentially replace others on the schedule, or even an add on if it could be worked into the schedule. One of those ideas started with a vague, “Why don’t we do a yearbook kind of thing introducing the kindergarten class from area schools?” That vague idea eventually became “When I Grow Up… Introducing The Class of 2027.”

We reached out to each school division in our little section of Western Tidewater: Franklin City, Southampton County, Isle of Wight County, and also Southampton Academy and Isle of Wight Academy. We wanted to know if they were interested in participating.

When we got the OK from the top, we started reaching out to principals in the district and got them to take the pictures or schedule a time for one of us to come by, and then most importantly, get their teachers to ask the essential question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

We got a lot of fun answers, including Princess, Superhero and Pirate. There were even some grand answers, such as President, Race Car Driver and a Rock Star. Practical answers also came in, such as Firefighter, Farmer and Veterinarian.

Back when I was 5 years old, depending on what day you asked me, I would have given you an answer from each category. If I had been watching too many cartoons, I would have said I wanted to be Spiderman. I also used to draw my own comic books and fold the notebook paper and tape it so that it would actually resemble a book. So, if I had been feeling more creative and less heroic, I likely would have wanted to be a comic book writer/artist.

I was less likely to be practical, though I do remember phases of wanting to join the army, be a firefighter or a veterinarian. Journalism never crossed my mind, and I admit I’m still open to being a comic book artist (though I lack the drawing talent I had when I was 5).

I’m betting the decision was equally tough for some of the children. And for us, narrowing down the children to be on the cover was equally tough. Our main criteria was to include a child from each district and to get a good balance of practical vs. the fantastic.

It was even tougher when you factor in that two of our districts, Southampton and Isle of Wight, had multiple elementary schools. We did what we could knowing that, unfortunately, we couldn’t get every child on the cover.

So we came up with Brooklyn Stallings, an IWA student who wants to be a nurse; Ethan Hatch, a Southampton Academy student who wants to be a professional football player; Timothy Martinez, a Windsor Elementary student who wants to be a police officer; Jakylah Diggs, a S.P. Morton Elementary student who wants to be a teacher; and Jackson Nicholson, a Meherrin Elementary Student who wants to be a medieval knight.

I would like to thank their parents for bringing them by and helping me pose them. I’d like to thank PDCCC for letting me use their classroom at the last minute, though I do wonder if they would have let me if they had known I’d be standing on their desks. The Windsor Police Department, Southampton Memorial Hospital, Dale Marks with Southampton Academy and Mike Blythe with the Southampton Renaissance Faire were all kind enough to let me borrow the outfits. The college’s Dr. Paul Conco also deserves some additional thanks, as he was working late and offered to help me pack some of the outfits to my car. I didn’t consider how I would easily get them all to my car when I sent the parents away.

Regardless of the occasional challenge, we had a good time putting it together, and when you pick up the paper on Sunday, we hope you enjoy it as well.

cain madden is the managing editor of The Tidewater News. His comic hero also include a radio active vermin, though it wasn’t a spider. Contact him at 562-3187 or cain.madden@tidewaternews.com.