This year's list, which is made up for the graduating class of 2013, holds particularly significance for me since this year's freshmen in college were born in 1991 -- the year I graduated from high school. You can read the complete list here but here are some particular things that stood out to me:
For these students, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis, and Freddie Mercury have always been dead. Dan Rostenkowski, Jack Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons. They have never used a card catalog to find a book. Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister. Salsa has always outsold ketchup. Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive. Tattoos have always been very chic and highly visible. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives. Rap music has always been mainstream. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice. Condoms have always been advertised on television. Cable television systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa. Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves. There has always been a Cartoon Network. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time. Phil Jackson has always been coaching championship basketball. There have always been flat screen televisions. Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on. They have never been Saved by the Bell. Most communities have always had a mega-church. There has always been a computer in the Oval Office. CDs have never been sold in cardboard packaging. Official racial classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
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