It’s 2010, the start of a new year. What’s more, as you may have heard, it’s the start of a new decade. The 10s. This has lead to plenty of people reflecting on what’s happened in the last 10 years. How things have changed, how far we’ve come. What we’ve seen and done as individuals.
Let’s think back 10 years…
In the year 2000, way back then, I was in grad school.
Oh, wait. I’m still in grad school. Fuck.
In the year 2000, I was living here. The couch was less dented, the carpet less stained. But it is the same couch, the same carpet. It’s funny to think that there are probably things in this house that have not been touched in 10 years. There have certainly been projects on the to do list that have not been touched in 10 years.
Living in the same place has lifted the landmarks from my memory. The years have almost totally blurred together.
I can hardly remember movies of the decade. When I think back on movies I love, the more “recent” ones, I’m shocked to see that they are often years old. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Was from freakin’ 2000. I’ve hardly read any books in the past decade. Most of my music is from the 80s and 90s. (Hell, I probably still wear clothes from the 90s. I’m just getting the jump on retro chic.)
Anyhow, I find myself having trouble being nostalgic for the past decade. Because apparently I barely noticed it.
Oh, fine. I guess I did have some changes. I mean, 2000 was when I started grad school, so that was a change. And I did get a master’s degree. And I had 2 children. And I guess there were some other events and accomplishments along the way. I mean, hell, in 2000 I didn’t even have an iPod, let alone a blog!
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In other news of nostalgia, I’ve been working on putting together a list of my favorite posts of the year. I may well put together more retrospective lists.
Speaking of which, Holly and I are going to be putting together a list of the best Just Posts of 2009. And we need your help! We’ll be taking nominations for the best posts of the year, orchestrating some voting, and even awarding prizes! We can’t do it without help, though, so let us know if you can help look back at a few of the posts of months past. To see the lists, you can check out the Just Posts category. To learn more about the Just Posts, check out the info page.
collecting tokens 
Pre-cise-ly!
I blame my ignorance of the last decade on my kidlets, but it’s probably Old Age.
Old Age. Harumpf. I still feel like I’m in my 20s. Which is probably why I choose to ignore the past decade.
Oh shit. I’m still in grad school, too… a decade later. Thank goodness I’m in good company!
At leat you well into the dissertation stage, Holly! I’m not even ABD. (Closer to ADD than ABD, as I like to say…)
Oh shit. It happened to me too! The grade school thing happened in the last decade: 1993 to 2000… This was so well said: “Living in the same place has lifted the landmarks from my memory. The years have almost totally blurred together.” We moved into this house in 2000… I am feeling very old now. Thank you very much. LOL.
Grade school, or grad school? ‘Cause if you were in grade school, then you have no business callin’ yourself old. Unless it’s your kids who were in grade school, which I guess they were.
Maybe we should form a club, in any case.
I feel like I should do some archeological digging to figure out what happened in the past decade. What were societal trends? What did people eat and wear? What’s that thing in the back of my fridge?
Oh crud. That is so embarrassing. Such a mistake serves as a proof that they should rescind my GRAD school degree, and actually, my GRADE school degree as well…
Twitter. Facebook. Social media Web 2.0. Blah blah blah. No idea on fashin other than Lady Gaga. You may find this chart from NYTimes handy:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/27/opinion/28opchart.html
As I like to say…Bad typists untie!
And, yeah, that chart is great. I think they should have “friend” or maybe “unfriend” in the verb category somewhere. I also confess that some of the things are unclear to me, which supports my having basically overlooked the decade. I don’t, for example, know who Rachael Ray is. Or what M.M.O.R.P.G.s are. Or who or what OutKast is. I see all of those fall into the “culture” category. I seem to have missed culture. And camera phones fall into “culture”? What up with that?
I don’t think it was just you– the ’00s kind of blew by without feeling like they were ever really defined. Case in point- I don’t think anything from the 90s- movies, tv, fashion, music- seems all that dated. Not the way 80s stuff seemed dated in the 90s. Maybe this decade blew by because many of us spent it hiding under the covers as we counted down a certain 4 year term, and then were shocked to find that we had to count down another one.
The weird thing is that technology and in particular Web 2.0 touched and in some cases entirely changed just about every aspect of our lives (not to mention overhauling or destroying entire industries), and yet it somehow feels like not that much of significance happened this decade. So here’s theory number 2 as to why the decade blew by- the more Web 2.0 infiltrated our lives, the more of our lives we spent staring at a screen, which I believe accelerates the passage of time. Also, I realized the other day that there’s part of me that still expects this internet fad to go away. As much as it makes some aspects of my life better, it makes me a little queasy sometimes to think that there’s no going back.
“the more Web 2.0 infiltrated our lives, the more of our lives we spent staring at a screen, which I believe accelerates the passage of time.”
I think you are on to something. I hope they fix this bug with the release of Web 2.1.
uh, wait, we’re not in our 20s anymore?? uh-oh. i suppose i’m in a time warp vis a vis fashion as well.
but i do have 3 moves to divide up the decade for me. other than the job changes, though, it’s all a wash of the same years shifting by.
I think I’ve always been in a fashion time warp. Or at least late with the fashions. I like to think of it as fashionably late…
Also, I think the 30s are the new 20s. Of course, soon I’ll have to face up that I’m almost of 30s.
Nearly my whole life has happened this decade…I was 16 in 2000!
So I take it the decade didn’t seem quite so short to you, Kyla? Harumpf. Youngsters today.
I’ve moved twice in the last decade. it definitely breaks it up. 10 years ago I had JUST bought our first house in Long Beach, CA, was doing a bunch of acting, working as a church secretary. Then I moved, had a baby. Then our lives went into some pretty massive upheaval, and we moved again. And then a big hurricane came along, more craziness. Lots more theatre, lots more wrinkles.
Other than still doing theatre and being married to the same man, I am in a VERY different place. Even most of our furniture is new (ish. you know. in the last decade…)
i thought I agreed with bshep about the 90s not feeling so dated as the 80s did during the 90s… until I look back at pics from the 90s, and then I realize how wrong I am. ;) I think it’s just an aging thing, really.
you calling me old?? :-)
I guess where I first noticed the 90s/00s nonchange was Seinfeld. The oldest ones look dated, but that’s because people, in particular women, still had an 80s look (claw bangs, high waistlines). But after 94 or so they don’t look dated to me (except for Elaine, who always looked dated, but I think that was the look she was going for). The most dated thing about Seinfeld is all the plots based around old technology (movie phone!, answering machine tapes, etc) and the misunderstandings and screw-ups that wouldn’t have happened if they’d had cell phones and email.
I dunno, Kurt Cobain still looks normal to me. For some value of normal. And he defines the 90s, right? No?
But I’m still wearing boot cut jeans when the rest of the world seems to have gone skinny, so what do I know?
I think she’s calling us both old, bshep!
I think I’m going to have to dig up some photos from the 90s to see how things look. The trouble is, all my photos from that era are pre-digital! So it sort of feels like that decade is missing from my personal history as well. I only have a trail of movies, books and music to remind me.
i’m calling myself old, for the record. my point being that as we get older the things in our past don’t seem so different than they are now, until closer examination. When we were younger it felt more extreme.
also, I think the 80s was a more extreme decade, particularly fashion wise. maybe that’s why it felt so different from the 90s. I don’t think the 90s or the 00s were as extreme in their differences, so in that sense I agree with bshep. but it doesn’t take much of a closer look to see the differences.
i seem to always forget to hit the “notify me of follow-up comments via email” button until AFTER i’ve hit sumbit
Ten years ago I was an extremely awkward sophomore in high school, with bad hair and worse clothes. Also, ten years ago I hadn’t seen Star Wars yet. Inexcusable.
I’m glad to hear you’ve come so far, Ashley!
A delightfully entertaining and witty post, cleverly narrated.
Thanks for sharing all of that.
I enjoyed reading it very much. :)
John
Writer & Poet
Thanks, and thanks for stopping by, poettraveler!
Having made some long-distance moves during this decade (I lived in Rome for almost half of the decade), I do have something to cut the 10 years into chunks, so that I noticed the passage of time more than you seem to have. Except it seems to me that having kids, you must have more of a sense of time passing, since you notice them growing and changing (even if you don’t always notice while it’s happening, every now and then you look at them and think “Wow! they’re so grown up! but then I guess it’s been a few years since I gave birth…”). Surely having children made a big enough change that living in the same house and still being in grad school pale by comparison?
But were the 00’s a definable decade? I’m sort of pop-culture-illiterate, so I would tend to miss a lot of the trends… but I think I agree with bshep on this. [But for the record, I’m also wearing boot-cut jeans.]
Hi, Sally! The funny thing about having kids is that it is so overwhelming and isolating that you feel cut off from the outside world. Kind of like the more intense years of grad school. But with less beer, and even less social life. The result is that you forget that time is also passing for the outside world. Or at least that seems to be the case with me.
But yes, you are right. 2000 was a lifetime ago. In spite of the house and grad school being the same, having kids was a change of monumental proportions.
As for cultural trends that defined the 00s, I think I have now summed it up in 2 words: butt crack. Oh, fine, I guess there was also other stuff.
I’ve had many, many “Oh, wait I’m *still* fill-in-the-blank. Fuck.” moments since 01 January. You are not alone. Maybe we could form a support group?
Oh, wait…that’s what blogs are for. Fuck.
PS – Everything about the 00s was retro! Retro Bohemian chic, retro ’80s makeup, retro pop music and Vietnam-era politics. Except for Reality television (God, please deliver us from it – and hurry!), much improved computer hardware and software, and electronic toys like XM, iPods and iPhones…I can’t think of anything original that came out of the Ought Decade.
I’m glad I’m not alone, CG.
As for your summation of the 00s, I think that works. Definitely retro. (And yeah, I’m with you on wanting to see the tail end of Reality TV.)
I’m happy about the gadgets, though.
I can relate – I missed the late 60’s including the whole Vietnam war, as far as I can remember now. Kids born ’66 and ’67. Husband in grad school, switched from Masters to Doctorate, so when I was not rustling rug rats, I was working. Whee – half a decade missing.
I am off to look at the Just Post list.
On the other hand, I hardly ever missed an episode of Star Trek, the original.
The movie thing happens to me all the time. You completely freaked me out just then with the crouching tiger hidden dragon thing. I remember when 2010 seemed a far off date in a sci-fi film. I declare that we need new landmark sci-fi to define what “the future” is.