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My this decade has gone by fast!
I find it so hard to believe that the decade, which has yet to be named (the aughts? the 0-0s? the 2000s?) has come to an end. So much has happened for me personally in the past ten years, which have, in a sense, marked the beginning of my adult life.
The decade started with me in the middle of my college years and all its relationships, joys, and anguish. In 2002, I graduated (I technically graduated in 2003, but emotionally, I feel my true graduation year was 2002) and then came what I call my "missing" year: the year I was missing from the US to be more precise. During that time I was in Japan for one of the best experiences of my life. So much happened in that year and a half. I learned so much about myself and what I was capable of. For the first time in my life, I felt truly independent. I not only studied, but made a living. I wasn't just a tourist, I truly LIVED in Japan. My first cell phone, my first apartment and other firsts...not many people can say that they spent their first years of true independence in another country, let alone one as amazing and so different from the "West" as Japan.
After coming back from Japan in early 2004, I went on a cruise with my mother to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. With this unforgettable trip, my dream of going on a cruise and visiting the Caribbean finally came true. In June of the same year, my sister Mariana and I went to Europe practically on a whim. It was a special time in both our lives that allowed for this trip to happen: Mariana had just graduated from college and neither of us had a job. Shortly after our return started my true introduction to the "real world" (at least the "real world" in the US) which, along with being back at home, led me to my decision to enter the field of library science. I stayed in Salisbury for another year, and had a very nice first experience in librarianship as a library assistant at the Wicomico County Library. When it came time to go to grad school for my library science degree, I did something I didn't think I would do and decided to go to the University of Pittsburgh. The 2006-2007 academic year at the University of Pittsburgh was a very intense one as I balanced a full-time course load and a 20-hour a week paid internship. But it was very rewarding because I learned so much and met some amazing people. Since then, Pittsburgh has been my home and life has been pretty steady with a long-term relationship, a job and the beginning of a career. I am truly beginning to feel like an adult.
Along with the end of the 00's came my 30th birthday and the beginning of my 4th decade. It seems so hard to believe.
As I think of the many people I've met and interacted with in the past decade, my friends from UD come to mind as having gone through so much with, having learned so much from, and having truly been there for me, even as we go our separate ways and forge our own lives. I also think about the people I met in Japan who opened my eyes to the world beyond the US and the friends I made in grad school. Together we all went through many amazing experiences, had our ups and downs, and learned so much from each other.
Unfortunately, during the past 10 years, I lost many people close to me. My uncle died in 2001 after being hit by a drunk driver. In 2004 was the sudden and very sad loss of my friend Medora. Life and time must move on, but as another year since her death passes and we move on to another decade, her memory stands still and will always be of the decade we are about to leave behind. I also lost both my grandfathers: my mother's father in 2005 and my father's father in 2007. There were also many celebrity deaths, of course, but three in particular made an impression on me. Heath Ledger because he was so young (my age, in fact), talented and full of promise. Michael Jackson because I had known about him and had been exposed to his music for as long as I can remember and took for granted that he would always be around. And oddly enough, Anna Nicole-Smith because her death made a celebrity that before seemed like a gross caricature seem, in the end, all too human.
While personally, the past decade was a formative and exciting one for me, I sometimes forget that in the realm of politics and world events, it was a very tumultuous decade that left us as a nation and as citizens of the world in despair. Time magazine called it the "Decade from Hell" (ouch) and when the New York Times asked people to suggest names for the decade, a lot of the suggestions were rather negative. It started with the jarring experience of 9/11: everyone who was old enough to remember will always be able to tell you the story of where they were and what they were doing on 9/11. I could go on about my own story here, but I have already written about it. After the dubious elections of 2000, the decade was unfortunately marked by 8 years of incompetence, greed, lies, and self-interest of George W. Bush's administration that left this country in worse shape than the decade before. There were wars, conflict, natural disasters, unnecessary murders, and the collapse of the world economy. Then followed such excitement, optimism, and jubilation as I have never seen before over the election of Barack Obama. Politics aside, I think it's amazing that a person of mixed race has been elected president. Unfortunately, the mood of the country is still marked by much pessimism. We seem to have lost all hope in ANY of our leaders and the ideological divide is becoming more alarming. We seem to be losing hope in progress. I didn't believe people when they said that 9/11 would change things, but as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, I see that it was all too true.
Yet, I look back on the decade and personally, it was a good one in which I learned much about life and established my own social ties as an adult. What will the new decade bring to our personal lives and to world events? I think we all hope that it will bring good things but I think we are ready to take on whatever comes.
By the way, it's ok to call them the "tens" or "teens"...right? ;-)
I find it so hard to believe that the decade, which has yet to be named (the aughts? the 0-0s? the 2000s?) has come to an end. So much has happened for me personally in the past ten years, which have, in a sense, marked the beginning of my adult life.
The decade started with me in the middle of my college years and all its relationships, joys, and anguish. In 2002, I graduated (I technically graduated in 2003, but emotionally, I feel my true graduation year was 2002) and then came what I call my "missing" year: the year I was missing from the US to be more precise. During that time I was in Japan for one of the best experiences of my life. So much happened in that year and a half. I learned so much about myself and what I was capable of. For the first time in my life, I felt truly independent. I not only studied, but made a living. I wasn't just a tourist, I truly LIVED in Japan. My first cell phone, my first apartment and other firsts...not many people can say that they spent their first years of true independence in another country, let alone one as amazing and so different from the "West" as Japan.
After coming back from Japan in early 2004, I went on a cruise with my mother to celebrate my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. With this unforgettable trip, my dream of going on a cruise and visiting the Caribbean finally came true. In June of the same year, my sister Mariana and I went to Europe practically on a whim. It was a special time in both our lives that allowed for this trip to happen: Mariana had just graduated from college and neither of us had a job. Shortly after our return started my true introduction to the "real world" (at least the "real world" in the US) which, along with being back at home, led me to my decision to enter the field of library science. I stayed in Salisbury for another year, and had a very nice first experience in librarianship as a library assistant at the Wicomico County Library. When it came time to go to grad school for my library science degree, I did something I didn't think I would do and decided to go to the University of Pittsburgh. The 2006-2007 academic year at the University of Pittsburgh was a very intense one as I balanced a full-time course load and a 20-hour a week paid internship. But it was very rewarding because I learned so much and met some amazing people. Since then, Pittsburgh has been my home and life has been pretty steady with a long-term relationship, a job and the beginning of a career. I am truly beginning to feel like an adult.
Along with the end of the 00's came my 30th birthday and the beginning of my 4th decade. It seems so hard to believe.
As I think of the many people I've met and interacted with in the past decade, my friends from UD come to mind as having gone through so much with, having learned so much from, and having truly been there for me, even as we go our separate ways and forge our own lives. I also think about the people I met in Japan who opened my eyes to the world beyond the US and the friends I made in grad school. Together we all went through many amazing experiences, had our ups and downs, and learned so much from each other.
Unfortunately, during the past 10 years, I lost many people close to me. My uncle died in 2001 after being hit by a drunk driver. In 2004 was the sudden and very sad loss of my friend Medora. Life and time must move on, but as another year since her death passes and we move on to another decade, her memory stands still and will always be of the decade we are about to leave behind. I also lost both my grandfathers: my mother's father in 2005 and my father's father in 2007. There were also many celebrity deaths, of course, but three in particular made an impression on me. Heath Ledger because he was so young (my age, in fact), talented and full of promise. Michael Jackson because I had known about him and had been exposed to his music for as long as I can remember and took for granted that he would always be around. And oddly enough, Anna Nicole-Smith because her death made a celebrity that before seemed like a gross caricature seem, in the end, all too human.
While personally, the past decade was a formative and exciting one for me, I sometimes forget that in the realm of politics and world events, it was a very tumultuous decade that left us as a nation and as citizens of the world in despair. Time magazine called it the "Decade from Hell" (ouch) and when the New York Times asked people to suggest names for the decade, a lot of the suggestions were rather negative. It started with the jarring experience of 9/11: everyone who was old enough to remember will always be able to tell you the story of where they were and what they were doing on 9/11. I could go on about my own story here, but I have already written about it. After the dubious elections of 2000, the decade was unfortunately marked by 8 years of incompetence, greed, lies, and self-interest of George W. Bush's administration that left this country in worse shape than the decade before. There were wars, conflict, natural disasters, unnecessary murders, and the collapse of the world economy. Then followed such excitement, optimism, and jubilation as I have never seen before over the election of Barack Obama. Politics aside, I think it's amazing that a person of mixed race has been elected president. Unfortunately, the mood of the country is still marked by much pessimism. We seem to have lost all hope in ANY of our leaders and the ideological divide is becoming more alarming. We seem to be losing hope in progress. I didn't believe people when they said that 9/11 would change things, but as the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, I see that it was all too true.
Yet, I look back on the decade and personally, it was a good one in which I learned much about life and established my own social ties as an adult. What will the new decade bring to our personal lives and to world events? I think we all hope that it will bring good things but I think we are ready to take on whatever comes.
By the way, it's ok to call them the "tens" or "teens"...right? ;-)
