It's not all boring, trust me!

I find myself saying, “I wish I knew then what I know now” a lot these days.

Last night I attended, actually worked on for OTN, the event with the National Press Club here at the Newhouse School. It was a panel discussion featuring professional journalists from television, newspaper, magazine and academia. It was enlightening, stimulating and entertaining. It was fun to be there.

And this morning I worked on the taping of a television show for WCNY called “The Ivory Tower.” Former dean of the Newhouse School, David Rubin, hosts the show. WCNY and SU explored the idea of doing a “remote” broadcast because it’s Homecoming Weekend and, well, it’s a good opportunity to show off the school. Like the night before, it was fun to be there.

Both events offered thought provoking discussion. There were moments when you wanted to get up and offer your own counter point as well as times when the ideas were ones you had not thought of before.

And I guess that’s what I’m enjoying about my return to college as a staff person; I get to take part in some of these offerings. And I wish I had done more of this when I was in school. Okay, I know, going to a boring lecture instead of, well, whatever you find more exciting that listening to a bunch of greybeard’s bloviate might not be your idea of fun, but as my father used to say, “You never know until you try.”

I tend to like setting goals and if I had one suggestion for you, I’d suggest you set a goal of attending one lecture each semester that has absolutely nothing to do with anything you’re remotely interested in. To me that seems like a win win. If you hate it, you can simply say, “Well I knew I wasn’t going to like that because I knew absolutely nothing about it.” The other scenario finds you saying, “Man, that was kind of cool, I didn’t know some of that stuff.”

It’s only an hour of your time and you’re spending a bunch of money to attend SU so you might as well get your money’s worth. No?