When I was taking the Journalism course at Humber College back in the late 1980's, the weekly Current Events quiz in one of my classes was the bane of my existence.
I dreaded it.
Unlike one fellow classmate who aced it every week, I was lucky if I got 5 out of 10.
Despite being in Journalism, I just didn't keep up with the news.
I didn't have the time, I told myself.
Or even the desire, if I'm being honest.
Even throughout my long and storied Journalism career in Broadcasting, which I enjoyed for more than two decades, I often didn't have a "world view" of the goings on and current events.
My dad would often ask me if I had heard about this story or that story in the news; I was embarrassed to say that I had mostly not.
He was stymied that even though I worked in the industry, I knew little about world events and goings on in the bigger sphere of things.
Again, I just didn't have the time.
Didn't have the time to get through an entire newspaper.
Wasn't always home at 6 o'clock to watch the news, because I was working IN the news, very focused on creating a news report and a story every day, when I wasn't writing and reading about world events as an anchor.
On those days, when I was anchoring, I did indeed know all about the current events and the goings on in the world, because I had to put them together and write about them and then read about them in a newscast.
But on reporting days, or days off, I was not focused on the larger news at all.
Only my story that I was working on; and on days off I was anti-news, because I had been working in it all week.
Get it?
Back in those days, the 1990's, which was the last century after all, we didn't have smart phones with us all the time with emails giving us all the latest news on our tiny screens.
We had to sit down at a large desktop computer and get into the Reuters or AP news feeds and find out what was going on in the world, so we could synthesize it for our viewers.
Oh, how far we have come.
Now that I have officially retired from being a broadcast journalist, I truly miss being at the heartbeat of the news cycle; listening to the police and fire scanners to hear about a juicy event; learning first hand about the political situations and who said what to whom and when and where.
And the world has come full circle.
Now, I quiz everyone else about current events; did you hear about this? Did you know so-and-so died?
And now I actually have the TIME to become fully informed about the goings on in the world.
I look forward to the 5:30 and then the 6:00 news on another tv station.
In my email inbox (on my phone!) I receive FREE daily local "newspapers" of the electronic kind, as the paper versions went out of print years ago.
One in the morning, and one in the afternoon, all great sources of local and regional news and events and tips and tricks too.
And now, I feel I have truly arrived in the current events all seeing and all knowing universe: I have signed up for the electronic daily emails from the Toronto Star, the be-all and end-all of news and events, for the mere price of a $1 for six months! Of course I will have to cancel after the six months because that price goes up to nearly $30 per month for the privilege of getting the news.
And now, I have the TIME needed to be aware and informed of any and all current events, to do with what I wish.
To start some small talk chit chat; to inform a friend or family member; to enlighten someone about what is happening in the world.
And I love it.
What I also love about it is that keeping up to date and informed on current events helps the mind so much; new information and trying to retain it is an important thing to do when one is getting older, to be sure.
Being curious, as I always was and am, helps, I think, with the appetite to keep on top of things and what's going on in the world.
And so, all these years later, I wish I could go back and take those Current Events Quizzes now!
I would ace them for sure.