The importance of print

Usually when I walk to class in the mornings, I'm totally oblivious to everything. At 8:30 a.m., it's enough for me to put one foot in front of the other, let alone take in my surroundings. However, this morning I happened to notice some bright pink newsprint flapping in the breeze on the sidewalk in front of me.

Alas! It was my newspaper's Think Pink experiment. Every Wednesday, we're printing a special section on pink newsprint in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It's quite a contrast to the regular newsprint - I mean, this paper is PINK. Really pink.

It wasn't until I passed the newspaper (planning on picking it up and recycling it, of course), that I realized the paper was open to the middle section, and lo and behold, there were the profiles of the women I interviewed. Their smiling faces and amazing stories were face-up for everyone to pass by and to ponder. And beneath each profile? My name in bold. It's not every day your name's displayed on the sidewalk for everyone to see.

So I left the newspaper there. Hopefully, someone will eventually recycle it. Hopefully, somebody will pick it up and read about the heroic lives these women have led. Hopefully, a girl who will face breast cancer in the future will catch a glimpse of them and later be able to draw on their experiences. Hopefully, someone who knows and loves someone who's battling breast cancer - a mother, a daughter, an aunt - will see it and know that there's hope.

Hopefully, this is why print journalism will never die.