David Nakamura
My road to The Washington Post began in 1988, when I was expelled from a high school photography class for sneaking repeatedly into the darkroom to read The Post sports section. On appeal to the school principal, I argued that every 1,000 words I read was worth a picture, but he didn't buy it.

That landed me for the remainder of the semester in a library study hall, where I sneaked behind the bookshelves and read The Post sports section. When the attendant asked what I was doing behind the shelves all the time, I replied that I was looking up literary giants such as (Post baseball writer) Tom Boswell and (Post columnist) Tony Kornheiser. She bought it.

At the University of Missouri, I waited impatiently for my father to send me two weeks of rolled-up Post sports sections, which saved me the misery of having to make do with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Kansas City Star. Unfortunately, I blew an interview for a stringer's job at the Star when I told the recruiter that I read The Post, not the Star.

These tales, however, helped me to land a summer internship in The Post sports department in 1992 and another in 1993, and that led to a full-time spot in 1994. For three years, I covered University of Maryland athletics, concentrating on the football and men's basketball programs. My tenure on that beat included a chance to cover Joe Smith, the NBA's No. 1 draft pick.

In summer 1997, I switched to the Metro staff to cover education in Loudoun County, Va., which has the fastest growing school district in the state. After a year and a half there, I moved to the Maryland desk to cover education in Prince George's County, Md., the state's largest school district.

These days, I come to work each morning and immediately open The Post sports section, which I can finally read in peace and without anxiety. Sometimes, I sneak into the darkroom to read it -- just for old times' sake.

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