My Decade

I was there for the '80s in body if not in spirit and I am an '80s child for better or worse.

In the '90s I went from elementary school to high school, and did a lot of physical, if not mental, maturing.

But this has been my decade. the '00s (the zeros, the aughts, the double O, whatever you want to call it) has been when things have really happened, and it will be strange to bid it adieu next year. Over the course of the decade I've had my first drink, my first smoke, lost my virginity, as well as plenty of other firsts . . . and second, thirds, and fourths. I also did more traveling than I had before, went to more concerts, read more books and met most of the folks who I count as friends.

And as much as I wish this first decade of adulthood had started with a positive jam, in truth it will probably not be looked at fondly in the grand scheme of things - it began with teenagers steeling music, ended with businessmen stealing money, plus the car companies fucking up all around, and a certain president who loomed over 8 miserable political years. Justin Fenton, an acquaintance at Maryland tried to brand my college class, (the kids who started college in '01), as the 9/11 generation in two articles he wrote. I find this rather sickening, and if anything we've been a generation who has split in a million directions. Sure you can still find plenty of folks in dorm rooms watching the Simpsons or 24 or Gray's Anatomy but if you look a little closer, you can see that the vast expanse of the internet has divided things greatly. There's more freedom than there's ever been.

All this is to say, up until this point when I've looked back at each year there have always been things that are new or better that I can point to. But I can see the plateau up ahead. At some point in the near future things will level out. The next decade will be for the kids entering college now and they will drink and smoke and do a lot of brilliant, stupid, and enjoyable things. The '00s almost killed me, but I couldn't have enjoyed them more.