Age - Part 1

While I sat in the Information Commons (IC) distracted from writing a research paper, my friend mentioned something that really struck me. She commented how the students in a junior high class she observes for her Education major don't really understand September 11, 2001.

You're normally 12 in 6th grade, the class she observed, and 9/11 happened eight years ago. Most of those kids were four. They weren't aware of what was happening when it happened. That really struck me hard. How could these kids not know the emotion that 9/11 had? How could they not actively live that moment?

This brought on the topic of other things that these kids, Generation Z as they are called, did not grow up with. They don't know grunge of the early and mid 90s or the boy band pop phenomenon of the late 90s. They don't know what life was like before computers were a household item. Everyone always had a cellphone and slow 56k internet connections were ancient history. They only know the World Trade Center from pictures and they don't know how crazy people became over Y2K.

They only know President Clinton as a historical figure. They don't know who Princess Diana was. They only know shows like Full House, Family Matters, NYPD Blue and Legends of the Hidden Temple from reruns. They have no idea who Joe Camel is. They don't know what it was like to go past airport security without a boarding pass. They don't know what Zaire is and only know the Rwandan genocide through a movie. They don't know that McDonald's ever had non-white meat chicken nuggets.

Both of us the realized when these kids are our age, we'll be around 30. We of course dropped the conversation and then went back to studying.

Side note: Kid Cudi is a pretty darn good



Day 'N' Night (Crookers Remix) has to be one of my favorite songs of the moment. Did I mention his hometown is about 10 minutes away from where I'm from?

-Chris

Weather - Part 0

Ice. Snow. Cold.

These three things represent the bane of my existence.

Honestly, I really can't stand the winter anywhere in the Midwest. I grew up with bitter cold all my life, the negative temperatures should be second nature. Yet all the time I find myself cursing the weather once the holiday afterglow ends in January.


Or maybe I'm just taking this for granted.

As the temperature progressively warms (which included a very nice day or two of 60 degree temperatures several days ago), I can't wait for summer to start. Warm temperatures, street festivals and late night trips to Lake Michigan in the early morning hours with friends are just the start of what I love about summer in the city. This summer will be different though, I'll be living with one of my best friends, more people will be staying and I'll be a senior. Being a senior? What a scary thought...

Ideally I'll intern again, hopefully in television this time. Time to send off those resumes and hope for the best.

Of course another trip to California will have to happen. After how ridiculous it was last time, I don't know what I would do if I didn't go again. Hopefully I can plan another trip somewhere else too, since Spring Break will consist of work, work and more work.

But I'm probably jumping ahead of myself. I still have to get through midterms and finals. This includes a grand total of two research papers, six regular papers, seven one page responses, two interview transcripts and one debate. Something else is probably missing, but I can't bring myself to try to find out.

Let's see if I can actually keep updating this. Despite blogging since 2001 (Yep, that's 7th grade. LiveJournal anyone?), I've found it harder to keep up as I get older. Here's hoping this works.

-Chris