Tara Smith

Growing up, I spent countless hours in the cozy library at Aquebogue Elementary. Those stacks were a place of storytelling and discovery where my mom, a school library aide, instilled me with a love of reading. She told me reading was a gift.

I was drawn to historical fiction, filling my shelves with Dear America books documenting historical eras through diaries kept by girls. You can imagine how devastating it was to learn that those diary entries weren’t real. But they were based on very real events.

I see democracy at work, often at crowded town hall meetings that stretch deep into the night.

Now, as a journalist, I’ve got a front row seat to history. I’ve had the opportunity to photograph a president visiting Long Island and take to the skies in a Beechcraft to better understand the impacts of sea-level rise on flooding.

The East End is a truly special place. One day, I could be interviewing an oyster or potato farmer and the next, an artist, vintner, politician, or some combination of the above. It’s a unique region and it’s changed immensely. There’s influential money, threats of development looming over expanses of farmland, a seasonal economy and dire affordable housing crisis.

I see democracy at work, often at crowded town hall meetings that stretch deep into the night. That tells me that people genuinely care about what’s happening in their neighborhoods. They deserve to know how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent, how decisions made in those halls will impact their day-to-day lives.

I’m driven by two simple convictions: that storytelling is universal, and that everyone’s got one to tell.

Deciding to pursue journalism wasn’t always the plan, but as the saying goes: I’ve got ink in my blood. My dad, Don Smith, was a Newsday reporter for more than two decades. One of my earliest childhood photos shows me clacking away on a keyboard in the East End bureau office, when it existed. It’s a cherished photo, and one of the few we have together since he died when I was very young.

Every day, I’m inspired by the impactful journalism my colleagues produce, holding leaders accountable. But I’m also moved by riveting sports features and getting to learn something new about our Island every day, whether it’s a new taco spot or a place to hike.

So I take working for Newsday as a great privilege: carrying a family legacy, telling unique local stories and helping to write Long Island’s history book.