Friday Five: Pomp and Circumstance edition

It’s Commencement Weekend for our university, as it is for many others. What better time to wax nostalgic about my own graduation, 24 years ago, from the storied Missouri School of Journalism? Here are five things I remember about that time in my life.

1. Linda Ellerbee delivered the commencement address. At that time, she anchored an innovative late-night news program, NBC News Overnight, and she had attracted quite a cult following among us young J-schoolers. We thought it was pretty cool to have such a hip news anchor speak to us about the future of news, the state of the world, and such. But all I remember from her speech was that she told us something along the lines of, “You don’t need a journalism degree to work in the news business. I don’t have a journalism degree, and I’m doing just fine.” So much for five years of college.
2. Commencement was held in a Methodist church that was off campus. My grandmother was unable to find the church and so missed the big event. From seventh grade until I went off to college, I lived with my grandmother. She had to drop out of school after eighth grade to raise her five younger siblings after her own mother died. She valued education, even though hers was limited, and she was looking forward to watching me, the youngest of five, become the first in my family to receive a college diploma. To this day, i regret that she missed out.
3. My classmates from 1983 include a guy who went on to work for the Wall Street Journal and write a book about one of the major corporate business scandals of the 1980s, a guy who does PR for the 2006 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and a slew of lesser lights who have since moved on to a variety of jobs in PR, marketing, corporate communications, law, and even the news business.
4. Popular dance club music, circa May 1983: David bowie’s “Let’s Dance” (the single and the album), Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” and “Hungry Like the Wolf,” by Duran Duran.
5. After the post-graduation celebrations of Commencement Weekend, I returned to my part-time job as a waiter at a Columbia, Mo., restaurant. I didn’t get a real journalism job until almost a year later.

Author: andrewcareaga

Former higher ed PR and marketing guy at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) now focused on freelance writing and editing and creative writing, fiction and non-fiction. View all posts by andrewcareaga