When I was growing up, my dad always bought a Sunday newspaper from the Circle K convenience store close by our house. I never really understood why he didn’t subscribe but perhaps it was just a routine that he adopted. Every Sunday I would wake up eat breakfast and then excitedly go right to the newspaper. I have to admit, I never really thought about the newspaper as an outlet for you know news until I was in high school. Until then I would go straight to the comics or the sports sections. That routine of having Sunday Newspapers to read was a great thing to increase my intelligence through the years. For that reason, I’m dedicating today’s thank you to Sunday newspapers.

I remember my exact routine with the paper. I would go and read the sports section first. I was always interested in high school sports and to see how King was doing in football and other sports. I’d get to the NBA stats and I would probably stare at them for a long time. I’ve always been a numbers guy and it just fascinated me to see how the team standings were structured. I understood how the games behind methodology worked and I could’ve probably given you a lot of stats back then on NBA teams, especially the San Antonio Spurs. Then after going through that I would go through the NFL section if it was in season. It was important to see how the Dallas Cowboys were doing. Then after browsing through the rest of the section (hockey didn’t really matter to me nor did golf or anything else) I would go to the comics. I have fond memories of always looking at Garfield, Peanuts, Family Circus and Dilbert. Life was good when you could laugh freely like that for an hour. Then I’d go to the advertisements and see if there were any good deals. I would also find the copy of Parade and read that.

This routine really helped me develop more of my reading skills. I know I didn’t catch up a lot on world events but it forced me into a routine of continually reading content and analyzing statistics. The more I read, the more I was interested in journalism and in High School I joined the Newspaper team. For me, Sunday newspapers really helped shape my life and my interests and it also helped me to bond more with my dad. He always sat there with me to read and those were great moments. The next time you get a Sunday newspaper, try reading with your children or your significant other. It might help start a new routine that will have lasting memories!

Michael Lerma

Michael Lerma graduated the University of Notre Dame in 2009 with an Information Technology Management degree. He currently works for The Nielsen Company in their Emerging Leaders Program.