Commencement

My cousin graduated today with her baccalaureate degree, and like the good and loving family we are, some of us sat through (at least part of) the ceremony.

All I have to say (besides congrats to her accomplishments - a B.A. in less than four years) is that how in the world did people survive before cell phones and text messaging.

Seriously. I'm not even joking.

Commencement speakers are always hit and miss, and unfortunately in my experience more miss than hit. But this one was not good, bad some might even say. We were lectured. All of us. Not encouraged, not given instructions for making our way in the world, no stories were told.

Nope. But I can tell you how and why the newspaper industry is struggling, and how we can help change that.

Of course, I studied communication some in college, so I could have told you most of it prior to today.

Luckily we all came prepared with our cell phones and spent the entire time texting each other.

I might have gone crazy otherwise.

Never before has the audience been so enthusiastic about getting to hear hundreds of names read.