2001-2010. A decade full of events that shaped me into the man I am. 10 years of tragedy, smiles, laughs, tears. 10 years of gaining friends, losing friends, watching friends have kids, watching friends' kids. A decade whose definition should just have the word "change" written beside it in the decade dictionary, if they make they make those. A decade that saw the end of one of the most successful shows in television history - "Friends". I wasn't a fan by any stretch of the imagination (though in my late teenage years have considered giving it a shot since I'd probably appreciate more now than I would have when it was popular), but when its series finale aired on May 6th, 2004 (my sister Krystle's 10th birthday, by the way), I was in the living room of a crappy trailer watching it with my mom. I don't even think she was a fan, either. It was just something someone living in this era had to do - a historical moment that if you weren't a part of, you would have felt left out. 2001-2010 will depart in a few hours, but the impact it’s left on my life and the lives of others will be felt
2001: The only thing I can remember about this year is I was crazy about Ariel Maynard and 9/11. That's wild ain't it? I know so much more happened, but the 5th grader inside me can only recollect the day that those towers collapsed and the schemes James Howell and I would concoct on the telephone in order to woo our respective "love" interests. 9/11 is my generation's Pearl Harbor - none of us will ever forget where we were that day, what we were doing, who we were with. I was doing math problems in Anna Stepp's 5th grade classroom with Heath Wilson and Jessica Ray near me when Ilene Smith ran into the room in tears. At that point the 11-year-old me was probably more preoccupied with Ariel or the math then the impact of the situation, though I guess many preteens probably could have cared less. In the years since I've gotten over Ariel and realized just how important September 11th, 2001 was - even if the year as a whole remains vague in my brain.
2002-2003: Sometime within these years, we moved into that trailer. These were bad years. However, they set the stage for what has transformed into my current family life - a better one, in my opinion - so I am thankful for these years, even if they were hard to get through. \
2004: The “Friends” series finale had aired a few weeks prior and I honestly haven’t thought about that happening until just now when I was thinking about the moment I met her. A poodle dress and some dancing. A cute sister to a former girlfriend…now I’m questioning whether it was during this year or not. Has it been 6 or 7 years since we’ve known each other? Either way, it’s been a while – but if we didn’t meet in 2004, there’s nothing about that year that strikes me as important (except, I wrote the first 10 songs of my life during the summer of this year – and man were they bad). 2004 might not have happened at all. I feel bad that I can’t remember since you’re one of the most important folks in my life. I know it happened, though.
2005: The year I met the girl the 14-year-old me seriously thought I could spend the rest of my life with. In retrospect, 14-year-olds are fucking stupid (so are 15, 16, 17, and 18-year-olds). That’s even further accentuated by some of the events that transpired at the end of my 8th grade year (mostly, hitting Justin Porter over something stupid). Thankfully, I turned 15 later on in the year and quit hitting peop….oh wait no I hit someone in 9th grade too. Damn. I wrote my first GOOD song this year. It wasn’t about the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with, but it was my first love song.
2006: I knew the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with for a year now and couldn’t get past her pretty exterior long enough to realize she was a nutcase. Or maybe I did know it and just loved that she loved me. I turned road-legal this year but wouldn’t get my license for a whole other year. It was in this year that I also met two of my best friends – Corey Howell and Curtis Goble. So, I guess me and 2006 are even.
2007: Me and the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with broke up for the 5th or 6th time during the summer of this year, and it was the greatest gift of all time. Her leaving me left me with so much free time that summer that I fell in love with the NBA when I decided to start watching the playoffs. And what a year to start watching! The #8 seed Golden State Warriors took down the #1 seed Dallas Mavericks in the first round, a historic feat, and I witnessed LeBron James’s 48-point destruction of the Detroit Pistons on route to the Cleveland Cavalier’s only NBA Finals appearance. The Cavaliers, their budding superstar and their hobo-looking center (Zydrunas Ilgauskas) became my team that summer. And I became a sports junkie.
2008: Me and the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with got back together about a year after her deciding we should call it quits and experienced our best time together yet. This was the year I went to the Governor’s School for the Arts and realized that whatever I end up doing in life, writing will have to be a part of it. This was the year me and the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with broke up for the final time, days after I went over a hill on the way to her house on my 18th birthday. What a lousy way that would have been to go out, huh?
2009: This year and the next are definitely in my life’s top 3. The events of all the years prior culminated in 2009 – my mom’s new boyfriend Shawn wasn’t so new anymore, but became a fixture in our lives that was well-welcomed, I finally got over the girl I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with and even had a strong enough heart to turn down her advances around the time of my senior prom, and after years of hard work I graduated as valedictorian of my senior class and went to college at the University of Kentucky. Power Rangers ALMOST ended this year, which would have been a travesty, but even it has survived the decade of change :)
2010: Started off with a tragedy of a month, but has turned into one of the all-time great years. It’s had its share of ups and downs and confusing moments, but I feel like this is year is the perfect bookend to the decade. There’s too much to talk about to go into detail, so I’ll leave it at that.
Ain’t that probably the worst retrospective you’ve ever read? I guess it’s more for me – a minute hodge-podge of random thoughts, of some important moments in my life over the past 10 years. It probably doesn’t show as well as I’d like here, but this decade HAS been amazing. So many memories, so many moments I’d love to recreate. With family, with friends, with more than friends – I have nothing but cherishing for all that’s happened. It’s not all been great, but it’s been good for me. It’s made me into the young man I am today. These years will continue to make me into me. And I hope you all stay around to keep witnessing the transformation. Good-bye, 2010, and 2001-2010. Hello, tomorrow.
I’ll be there for you.
