Of all the things that I did in college, nothing has prepared me better for the "real world" than working at The Spectrum. Actually, it's not fair to say "work": it was fun. Imagine if your homework was going to the movies and concerts. Imagine a big test consisting of going to Los Angeles to attend a movie premiere and then spending two days interviewing the stars and filmmakers. I certainly was the envy of my friends who were engineering majors. Thank you Prodigal Sun!
But that was the easy part. My friends missed the late nights at the Sun desk, with the electric typewriter, writing in proper journalistic format. But The Prodigal Sun, and The Spectrum, offered something no college class did: reality. Nearly every college student pulls all-nighters, writing essays that only one person reads. With The Spectrum, the whole campus read it. How much effort did everyone else put into studying for tests that were forgotten as soon as they were turned in? I still have every copy of The Prodigal Sun from my four years at UB.
There could be no making up for missing a deadline with extra credit; there was no haggling for a grade. There was a paper to create, every week, and dealing with that finality prepared me far better for my life away from school than anything else I can think of. What I actually did for a grade in my classes are a vague memory: what I did for The Prodigal Sun remains vividly clear.
The hardest part of working at The Spectrum? Getting the nerve to walk through that door the first time and ask if I could write for it.
Email: alumni@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
