THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Grandma's legacy, lessons By Matt Brown NINETY-NINE percent of my time spent at the Collegian office has been happy. Rm work, good friends, good people I've had a blast. Oct. 10.2007, encapsulates the other 1 percent. That day, I sat at a computer, a quiet sports reporting candi date trying to help out with foot ball research, MY OPINION My phone vibrated on the desk in front of me. I knew what was coming before I even heard the first crack in my mom's voice. My grandmother was gone. We didn't call her "Grandma," she was always "Ahnie." We called her Ahnie because, well, for whatever reason, my brother Past mistakes can resurface in information age By Matt Conte SOME of us are fortunate enough to make our mis takes in private. Others of us ma e t - tem in open forum. An unfortunate few make headlines when they slip up. And those few are lucky if a print headline is as tar as it goes. MY OPINION Unfortunately for us, the men and women of the information age, the measure of a person's integrity might be gauged by little more than search returns from Google, Facebook and You Tube. Never majorly messed up? Maybe you just made an impul sive comment or expressed an opinion or were involved in some unfortunate matter of circum stance. It can all be used against you in the information age. Privacy runs quite a premium today. America is the land of free dom of speech and the press; however, more importantly, it's the land where you have the right To subscribe please enclose: ❑ $40.75 for a one-year subscription. ❑ $62 for a two-year subscription. ❑ $76.50 for a three-year subscription Outside of the United States? Call 814-865-2531 for a ybote. Make checks payable to C' Is Inc Mail to: The Weekly Collegian Department W 123 S. Burrowes St. State College, PA 16801-3882 said "Ahnie" instead of "Grandma" when he learned to talk. For more than 20 years, it stuck in the family. The name was out of the ordinary, but Ahnie was never ordinary to begin with. Diabetes confined her to a wheelchair then to her bed. It took both of her legs. It took most of her vision. It took her kidneys. But never in my life did I hear Ahnie complain. Never. She always made the best of whatever challenge was thrown at her. She was a frequent hospital guest, but she made the most of it. She'd keep a drawer stocked full of candy from the gift shop for visitors and frequently played pranks on nurses. That was Ahnie. She loved to have fun and make others smile Ask my Pop-Pop, who opened his lunch on "Grandparents' Day" at my elementary school to find a cardboard-and-pepper sandwich. to remain silent because anything you say can and will be used against you in the Court of Public Opinion arguably more treach erous than most courts of law. From an honest opinion to a dubious tweet to a seemed-like-a good-idea-at-the-time demonstra tion to Facebook evidence of last night's party, all the way down to sexting, the simple fact is that when we members of the infor mation generation act, it can go viral in an instant. Our words and actions can spread faster than anyone can suppress or correct them, and people may (perhaps unfairly, perhaps reasonably) form opinions of you before even the best spin doctor can help you. Then, how must we adapt to our own time? Well, it begins with an unwillingness to judge on one end (because we all make mis takes) and tact and personal integrity on the other. Integrity has always been rare in its pure form, and now, in the information age, it's harder to fake. Personal integrity used to mean doing the right thing even when there is nothing in it for you, even when nobody is looking address ❑ new subscription ❑ renewal ❑ gift The Weekly Collegian publishes when classes are in session during Fall Semester and Spring Semester OPINION Ask my brother, who unwrapped a Christmas present a few years ago only to find his $lOO bill frozen in a block of ice. Or ask residents of the town of Wmd Gap. Back in the 19605, there was a wild rumor going around that martians were set to land. So, on that day, Ahnie decid ed to have a little fun. Dressed in a white sheet with a colander on her head and aluminum foil antennas, she walked into town. Two women got scared, swerved up on the curb in their car and proceeded to call the police on her. Of course, the police found her prank to be hilarious. The stories could go on and on She loved life, and she loved her family and friends. Even when things got bad and then got worse, the simple ability to get into the kitchen and cook for fam ily and friends kept her going. That's all she needed: to make people she cared about happy by But how rare is a blind eye, today? If your darkest days escape the camera phones, that's a bit of solace in itself The Daily Collegian fields requests all the time from people who want their names removed from the Collegian's Web archives, for one reason or anoth er. With the growth of the Internet, their college mistakes and mis-statements have resur faced online. Some people were connected to crimes or dubious circumstances; others just wish they'd kept their opinions to themselves. I feel for some of them, because who could have foreseen that the Internet could foster such consequences? The Oracle of Omaha came close. Warren Buffett once said it takes 20 years to build a reputa tion and five minutes to ruin it. This was before Twitter. Nowadays, it takes fewer than 140 characters and as much time as it takes to type them. And the mes sage is going much farther than can be reached, historically, by the community newspaper's headlines. But the papers have Twitter now, too. _ state _ live on for senior doing things like sending home cooked meals to a college student whose idea of cooking is hitting "reheat - on the microwave. She loved sports, particularly baseball, and tuned in to the Phillies game just about every night. She had to be my first call when the Phillies finally made the playoffs in 2007. 11l always be thankful I dialed the number. For a last conversation, that one was about as good as it gets It's been two-and-a-half years since then. In that time. I covered several Penn State sports at the Collegian, including the men's basketball NIT title season. I landed a couple internships and served as the Collegian's Football Editor and Opinion Editor, and now, I'll graduate and spend the summer at the ballpark covering the Cincinnati Reds. When she left us, I had one Collegian story under my belt. There are more than 100 now. I'm I've never admitted it publicly, but, in part, I joined the Collegian as a way to hide. While my pas sion for writing and editing is sin cere, I always felt comforted knowing that if I'm writing the headlines and crafting the arti cles, I'm considerably less likely to appear in them not as a matter of underhandedness, but for the simple tradition that we in the newspaper world haven't tra ditionally spent much time talking about ourselves. Indeed, I hate that my name and picture appear in the Collegian today. I went four years with little more than a couple bylines and the inconspicuous printing of my name on the Board of Editors listing as evidence of my engagement with the Penn State community. I hate that by some measure, I'll forever be linked to this col umn through Google and Collegian archives. I know there is much more to my character than what is reflected in this opin ion piece, but it will be the piece of me that gets broadcasted. By the time this goes to print, I'll have no idea whether publish- THURSDAY, APRIL 29. 2010 I 9 sure she would have loved to read each one of them. Family meant everything to her. And she meant everything to our family. Whenever something goes wrong, I know I shouldn't com plain. Ahnie wouldn't have com plained. The little negatives that happen here and there, they don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Be happy and enjoy life. Make others happy. That's what matters. That's how you leave a legacy and live forever. That's what Ahnie taught me. So thank you. Pop-Pop, for all the sacrifices you made to pro- Semi-Finals Thursday 4/29 Princeton vs. t o , George Mason @5:30 Penn State vs. Springfield @ Bpm VA Championship Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 @ 7pm vide her the best care imaginable And thank you. Ahnie. When I look back at my college career, all I hope is that I made you proud. Matt Brown is a senior majoring in ,our nalism and is the Collegian's Opinion Editor. His e-mail address is mdbsoB2@psu.edu. ing this column will ultimately prove to be a good idea. But I had something to say and a forum to say it, so I said it. Don't get me wrong: I've come to realize that there's nothing to fear in taking action, speaking up or otherwise engaging your community, but now more than ever, it is neces sary to make sure we act NAith tact and integrity and, at the same time, recognize that we are more than our Facebook profiles. Whether you're a freshman reading this m print in the HUB or you're an HR rep who Googled my name and is wondering if you should give me an interview. you've found me. and it probably wasn't very difficult. I hope this piece makes you think I'm a genius, but if you think I'm an idiot and I've just made a cynical pessimistic, dramatic ass of myself, it's something I'll have to live with. That would be unfortu nate, but I suppose it proves my point after all. Matt Conte is a senior majoring in English and is the Collegian's Campus Editor. His e-mail address is mjcsl2l@psu.edu. Saturday 5/1
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers