Life as 2015 grads know it

This list (from Beloit College) was in the Chattanooga Times Free Press the other day. It was a sidebar on a story about the valedictorians from area high schools. These lists are always an eye-opener.

Life as 2015 grads see it

Here are several things that have been true for the class of 2015 for most of their lives.

• Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker’s long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Travis Bickle.
• They have never seen an airplane “ticket”.
• For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
• They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
• There has always been football in Jacksonville, but never in Los Angeles.
• Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.
• They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
• They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
• History has always had its own channel.
• Gene therapy has always been an available treatment.
• Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
• Email is just too slow and they seldom, if ever, use snail mail.
• Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
• They've never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
• “View Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
• Secondhand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
• Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.