Milestones

How many milestones or important events do any of us have in our lives? How many events occur that actually turn out to be true turning points, that lead to permanent changes of attitude or behavior? My guess is not many even though things that do happen from time to time may seem at the moment to be very important. The reality is that they rarely are so noteworthy to the point of being true milestones or transformative events. When I played little league baseball many years ago and pitched a no-hitter, that was exciting and felt as if it were going to change my life forever. It didn't. I remember one of the games I pitched shortly after that found me getting clobbered by the other team. Fortunately, that turned out not to be a milestone either even though it was as memorable in a negative way as the no-hitter.

My pitching experiences reflect the ups and downs of life itself. We all have them and, consequently, are presented with the challenge of keeping these moments in proper perspective so as to assign them their proper level of significance. One of the great functions of communication is that it serves as a tool to be used to help determine whether something is a genuine milestone as opposed to whether it is something of only fleeting significance. Specifically, communication is a factor in collecting, comparing and articulating information. It helps add shape to efforts to assess an occurrence and then, ultimately, explain it to ourselves and others. Bottom line: it helps us understand a circumstance or event as well as our own feelings toward it.

To be fair, not everyone agrees as to what is a milestone or transformative event. An example can be found at Northern Illinois Illinois. In February, 2008, a terrible thing happened: a graduate student walked into a lecture hall, pulled out a weapon and killed five people, wounded 19 others and then committed suicide. Looking back, administrators as recently as this year still disagree as to whether this event was a milestone. While certainly the tragedy is viewed as being significant in the institution's history, whether it has actually led to tangible changes in university policy or in how the institution carries out its policies, remains a point of debate. Communication is helping those who worked at NIU that day process its meaning and level of significance.