Have you ever had one of those "I guess you had to be there" moments?
You tell your friends something that happened in class, but it's as if you're conversing with some unengaged gelatinous species that just doesn't get it.
And try as you might, you can't make it funny, you can't make them care, because they had to experience it for themselves.
I used to be one of those blank-faced, subhuman individuals when it came to keeping up with current events.
People could tell me about elections, lawsuits and the world until they were blue in the face and all I heard was "blah blah blah," while staring at them and wondering how anyone could stand the boredom that I believed came hand-in-hand with the news.
A few years ago, when I made the decision to pursue journalism, I realized that it would be impossible to do so without first immersing myself in what the profession was all about.
I bit my lip, put down the comics and picked up the front page of The Star Ledger.
Suddenly, the jibberish that my friends had been "discussing" with me became language.
I no longer relied on others to inform me as to who won the game or what candidates were running for what position. I could participate in intelligent conversation.
I realized that this was my world too, and it was important that I know about it.
Unfortunately, I have come to realize that although we attend an institution of higher learning filled with individuals who have a keen desire to succeed, many students are not at the level they should be when it comes to their awareness of current events.
I see several students buy the paper everyday and I know many others stay updated through the Internet.
However, too many times I have felt like that person trying to get my friends involved in an incident they were not there to see, and I know they are looking at me and thinking "blah, blah, blah."
It worries me that, as adults, so many are detached.
I wonder how our generation is going make any attempt to change the world if so many of us are strangers to it.
Many students are even unfamiliar with the happenings within their own College community.
These are the individuals who, at this very moment, are reading the cartoons in the back of the paper instead of reading this article.
I bet some of your friends are doing just that - I know some of mine are.
I suggest that you give them the following advice: Walk through Eickhoff Hall and grab a free Times. Read The Signal. Log onto CNN.com. Flip on the news at night.
It's important. It's not Beetle Bailey, but it's almost as good.
