How was each year of the decade for you?

[Lord Garth]

Another end of the decade thread. Anecdotealy, I don't remember seeing any of those on TrekBBS back at the end of 1999, but it's time to strike while the iron is hot.

2000: Okay. Nothing really stands out though.

2001: Started to get bored with life until September when I transferred from a two-year college to a four-year college and the other thing happened (yes, you know what I'm talking about). Being half-Iranian, every semester I pretended to be a different nationality. Over the next few years, it turned into a running gag with my friends and I. First I was Swedish, then I was Finnish, then I was Mongolian, and then I went for Meposian ("Don't be ridiculous!").

2002: Pretty good and kept getting better as it went along.

2003: The zenith of my early-20s.

2004: Graduated with my Bachelor's Degree and then it was a downhill slide from there.

2005: Skip. My worst year in the decade.

2006: Treaded water until I found a direction and set specific, attainable goals.

2007: Started my current job, started grad school, and life was back on track. 2004 in reverse.

2008: The zenith of my late-20s.

2009: Life has started to move in a new direction again. It's exciting and unpredictable at the same time, especially with the black cloud of a bad economy, but that's part of the challenge and part of the thrill.

I know everyone's been doom and gloom about the '00s (or it seems like they are) but, except for a patch that lasted for two years and some change, I didn't have a bad decade. I hope there are other people who've had a good 10 years overall as well.

 

[Emher]

2000: Finally got out of the hell that was grade school and into high school. Granted the last year of grade school I studied from home.

2001: Things kept getting better. Saddened and shocked in September along with everyone else.

2002: Getting better. Lost one of my friends in summer (as in not being friends any more), but in the long term it was for the best for both of us. I actually enjoy school loads in the fall. Fall deeply madly in love for the first time.

2003: Join here for the final project in high school! Asks questions about DS9/FC uniforms, get help, sticks around. School continues to be awesome. Love culminates in me albeit clumsily asking girl out, but being turned down. Bigger a man from the experience. Graduates high school, lots of partying, mom cries, bro looks funny holding a huge sign with me as a baby. Has a fun summer, starts at the university. Not as much fun as HS.

2004: Moves out of the house with sis into an apartment and into Norrtälje from Rimbo (don't go to that town, ever). University disagrees me, we have a fight, decide to go separate ways. Starts part time job in the summer. Gives university another chance in fall, this time another course, one in English. Fails miserably because I thought it would be about actual knowledge and usage of the language and not poofy world classes and rules no one cares about. Go to Crete with entire family in fall, last entire vacation with family thus far. Have to put down beloved dog Sigge a few weeks after we get back. Very sad

2005: Finally gives university the bird and start working fulltime. Leads to more money but less time for friends seeing as I work mostly weekends. Gets to knowing pen pal I've had for a few years even more. Get closer and fall in love with said pen pal, admits feelings for her in e-mail. Get's positive response saying she loves me as well, starts saving for trip to the US.

2006: Starts resenting my job, but keeps on to save for the trip. Go on the trip in June, have a wonderful ten days. Gets home and starts waiting for her visit at Christmas, but wait is cut short in July by her breaking up with me. Later learns that she's been seeing another man most of our relationship. Anger, then depression. Quits my job in early winter. Start taking the odd hour job.

2007: Depression and lack of job continues. Try different ventures throughout the year, all fails. Depression deepens.

2008: Can not seem to get a job, depressed to the point that I do not wish to live. Smart enough to tell my parents and they help me out. Saving grace is applying for a year of film school. I get accepted and start film school. Feel I've found my line of work, especially fond of editing. Makes a new female friend. No longer wishes to die.

2009: Things at the education start falling apart with the crashing of the hard drive with our main project. Friendship with female friends deepens. My uncle gets falsely accused of attempted double murder, cleared quickly. The stress of the events drives me to want to get closer to my female friend, and it would probably have happened had she not decided to go out instead of come over to my place. As a consequence she meets a new guy and they get together.

After continued troubles at school I decide to go for the difficult task and re-edit our main project that crashed and actually make it into a film. I succeed in time for the graduation screening, teachers and classmates impressed with my work, but I hit the famous wall after all the stress and want nothing to do with film making. Something that ultimately lasted all of two months. Female friend breaks up with boyfriend for current and better boyfriend. By this point I've realized we are not to be anyways, but still I am alone in our two person crowd.

I can't seem to get a job, and spends my saving to pay the bills. Mom and dad helps me get a by the hour job at an inn next door to their house in late august. Hate job, lots of manual labor and terrible pay. But it's all I've got. Keep at trying to find another job. I am unsuccessful. I get more depressed. Want to die again, but family will not be able to afford funeral, not to mention probably shatter of my death. Keep at it. Turned a corner a week ago and started seeing positive on things.

Hope 2010 is better then 2009.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

2000: My first year of college was going on (started in 1999). I was living with my grandfather, but ended up moving in with my mom because I hadn't gotten to see her in several years.

2001: I regretted moving in with my mother. I was juggling three jobs and going to school full-time. I decided I didn't need her crap and so I got my own place.

2002: My then-future wife, whom I had not seen in 3 years, came to stay with me so we could see how things would work out. Without going into a lot of details, it was pretty disastrous and it didn't seem like we'd survive it as a couple.

2003: A much better year. I don't think anything in particular happened, things were just moving along decently.

2004: I got picked up on salary at the software company where I worked. We decided to get married and start a family. Since we were told by various doctors she'd have a hard time getting pregnant, we decided to start early. Oops. It turned out not to be as hard as we were told. We pushed back the wedding so we could prepare for the baby instead. Baby was born on Halloween. We got married in December--on this date, actually.

2005: My daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy, had to be medicated. My wife got pregnant again.

2006: Had a son. Not a whole lot else to speak of here.

2007: What a crappy year. My grandfather died, my mother almost died several times, my aunt caught a severe infection that almost starved her to death, and my wife was diagnosed with cancer. Bleh. Probably the crappiest year of the decade, for my family.

2008: Not much better than 2007. My uncle died at 42. A couple months later, I was laid off from my job. About a week after that, my wife found out she was pregnant again. Great timing, right? All the shit was backloaded onto the last few months of the year, so I don't really remember anything before that. I guess it was kind of a boring 3/4 of a year.

2009: Got a new job, but it's in New Jersey, and moving my family here just ended up being impractical, so we live 700 miles apart now. I go back when I can. Despite that, it's been a pretty cool year. I got to meet a bunch of TrekBBS people, have seen New York City, and have been exposed to a pretty different cultural atmosphere. It seems appropriate that I'm closing the decade with a year of changes. Hard telling what 2010 is going to look like.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

2000: Lousy.

2001: Transition year...pretty rough.

2002: Rough start, but decent.

2003: Worst year ever. 3 deaths. I'll never trust years that end in 3 again. (1993 was as bad).

2004: Buried self in dead end job and pathetic hobbies to distract myself from 2003.

2005: Failure.

2006: Complacency.

2007: Complacency. (where did those years go?)

2008: Irritating, worrisome. Lost weight, though, but due to sacrifice. Sacrifices suck.

2009: Ignoring wake up calls...unmotivated in the face of declining income and age. Wheee!!

 

[Goji]

2000 - Fun for the most part. I was thirteen and didn't have to care about very much. In the fall, I began taking Japanese classes at the local junior college, which turned out to be something of a turning point.

2001 - Less fun, but very similar to 2000 in most ways.

2002 - Okay, life sucks now. My family moved into the Sierra Nevada mountains for very complicated reasons. It was a remote place with absolutely nothing to do, terrible weather and worse living conditions in the ancient house we bought to renovate. Also, high school. Fucking high school. That is all I have to say about that.

2003 - Better, but the high school problem still exists. Thankfully I live at sea level again, allowing me to see/have friends and go to classes at the junior college again. Uneventful year for the most part.

2004 - It was a miserable year, but in retrospect an important one. I lost a lot of weight, took up tennis, wrote most of my first novel, and branched out into non-Japanese classes at the junior college. However, high School goes from an annoyance to the bane of my existence, and I do not take it well. I long for the sweet release of death.

2005 - Major improvement for the most part. Mostly because I escaped from the misery and torment of high school. I start college, but get stuck with a crap class schedule that includes nothing I enjoy, and a roommate from hell. Much hilarity ensues.

2006 - Overall a good year. College is in full swing, the awful roommate disappears around March and is never seen again, classes are more interesting and there's fun aplenty. I start getting good enough in Japanese to actually hold conversations entirely in the language.

2007 - Probably the best year thus far. School worked out well this year, I had a nice trip to Hawaii with the family, and I enjoyed my living situation better than any I have had before or since. One of my Japanese penpals falls in love with me, and though it would not eventually end well, at the time I was quite happy.

2008 - A downturn, but not terribly so. I am sick of school at this point and want out. I gain a lot of weight back for reasons that are not exactly clear to me (my body is weird and hates me). I am unable to continue living with my former roommate, and get stuck with a bunch of freshmen instead. But they turn out to be nice enough people, if immature at times, and life improves.

2009 - Probably the best year of my life. I graduate college, have a mostly-nice last semester before I leave, and get a job in Japan. Before that, I spend two weeks there on vacation and have a lovely time. My relationship ends shortly after that, which is unfortunate but probably inevitable, and overall does not sour the rest of the year.

 

[Finn]

2000- Got on Dean's List, got an internship in Alaska-interesting. but ended with a murder at school in the fall.

2001-So-So, with the second murder at the college, pointless summer and 9-11

2002- Graduated from college. Probably should have stayed.

2003- Not so good

2004- Got my first real job, went to Seattle on my own, the real Finn entered my life. A decent year.

2005- Good year, very good with finances back then, got fed up of Cincinnati and decided I'd move back to DC.

2006- The year I met my fiancee (I didn't know we would end up together seeing how it was in passing), and moved back to the DC area.

2007. Mundane year except for the road trip from Denver to DC that summer.

2008- Hardest and craziest year. But it was the best thing to happen to me- a new car, a new computer, lost my job and decided to go back to school.

2009- Magical. 2010 will never top this year. I'll have to wait until 2011 for a better year.

 

[Kestra]

Oh man, I don't even want to revisit them. Some of them I think I've actually partially blocked out because I can't deal with the massive amounts of fail in my life. Here's hoping the next decade is a bit smoother!

 

[iguana_tonante]

Interesting thread!

2000: University. Pretty standard year, courses, exams, the usual. Nothing stands out to memory.

2001: University: Second semester sucked, I was stuck in a quantum mechanics exam that apparently I could not pass. I risked losing my scholarship, but luckily that never materialized.

2002-2003: Another couple of pretty standard university years. Did some teaching assistant job. Probably, best years so far.

2004: Graduated MSc. Most of the year was busy with thesis work, some crazy times for sure, but in the end I came out with top scores. Yay for me!

2005, also called the Lost Year: called for mandatory Civil Service, assignment was pretty good (librarian at the university), but I was bored to death most of the year.

2006: got into PhD course. Pretty shitty year: transition was quite rough, supervisor was a bitch, and I had to move to another city. Hard times for sure. Best moment, got my black belt in jujutsu.

2007-2008: much better years. Life mostly stabilized, had fun doing research and some teaching. Even going home for the weekend became routine instead of a hassle.

2009: last year of PhD course. Unbelievably busy with dissertation and other duties. Also, got my second black belt. Much thinking and musing.


2010: the adventure of the iguana has just begun!

 

[Warp Coil]

2000 - in college, working a pretty decent part-time job on campus. Bought myself a new car. Lost two of my closest friends (they didn't actually die... our friendships just ended for different reasons at different points during the year).

2001 - still in college, but losing my path and not really focused or motivated. Also went on a couple of different medications which had unfortunate side effects (such as alarmingly-high cholesterol and substantial weight gain).

2002 - Slowly getting back on-track in school. Taking more interesting classes. Met a new professor who would go on to become my advisor. Went off the medication and started the task of losing the excess weight.

2003 - An interesting year. Lost my grandfather in January to Alzheimers, amongst other things. Got a great internship that summer. Also went to London and met my extended family for the first time that summer. Wrapped up my college education with my B.A. just before Christmas.

2004 - Received a job offer 5 days into the new year. Started a full-time job with benefits, in my field, at a very popular company. Adjusted to life after college and the responsibilities of "the real world".

2005 - Still working. Went back to London for another visit just before hurricane Katrina hit. Finished paying off my car, and then shortly thereafter, sold it to my uncle. Bought myself something a little nicer.

2006 - promoted at work. More money, yay! More work politics, boo! Held the job for 10 months and then actually took another position in a different department. Even more money, yay! More responsibility, but a more much satisfying and challenging job.

2007 - As the house market began its collapse, decided to buy my own place. The good news here is that I waited until the market had gone down. The bad news is, the market went down even further after I'd already bought a place. Began life as a homeowner, with all of the pro's and con's associated with it. Definitely a big adjustment.

2008 - nothing terribly dramatic happened this year, as far as I can recall. Went to Las Vegas for the first time in my life. Saw a friend out there who'd moved away 6 years prior. Decided in the fall that I should take advantage of my company's educational assistance benefit and applied for grad school.

2009 - Started the year off with my first semester of school. Adjusted to life as a student again, while also working full-time. Watched my Dad re-marry in the summer. Picked up a bit of the travel bug and went a few fun places throughout the year.

2010 - TBD

 

[Zulu Romeo]

OK, we'll see how much of this I can remember:

2000: A happy year overall. Got my BSc, enjoyed an enjoyable summer with close friends, but overall marred by Uni things towards the end of the year. Also marred by the fact I couldn't get over the summer that was 1999, the best summer ever.

2001: Not a great year. Had to move house into a place where I wasn't happy, had conflicting personal and professional duties, and was generally miserable for this year.

2002: Discovered the Internet properly this year, and moved into a happier flat with happier people, so overall a good year. However, things mood-wise were still bleak.

2003: A promising year. Last year at Uni finished, the prospect of earning real money happened, and I gained some real independence for a change. Also failed miserably in securing a significant other.

2004: The Year of Zion Ravescene. Not a great year, despite this. Moved to England halfway through, into a very unfamiliar setting where people were not friendly and disaster was around the corner.

2005: Some more stability as I moved into a flat of my own, but despite the friendliness of work colleagues, I was taken aback by a particular work situation, which may have set me back further than I realised. Became more expensive as the year went on, what with house and car purchases, but otherwise I found it a memorable and enjoyable year.

2006: The year I moved into my own house. Quite a solitary and lonely year overall, trying to fit things around a new setting, and also using my car much more thanks to a 25 mile commute in the second half of the year. However, not a satisfactory year I must admit.

2007: The start of the rot. Major job dissatisfaction ensues, major upheavals at work, moving around too much, and needless expenses are the bane of my life. Probably the worst year to date. However, I do have the Internet to keep me sane.

2008: The rot continues. There is a great sense that I am unhappy with things in general - work, the house, the family, relationships, everything really. Despite a move to a friendly work place in the second half of the year, I feel soulless and isolated, and it is at this point that my feelings of loneliness really start to take hold of me.

2009: The bursting of the dam. A combination of personal circumstances and crises of self leads to a period of convalescence and reflection in the summer months. My life focus changes, looking towards something different, something more life-affirming and satisfying. No luck so far.

2010: The Year We Make Contact™. I hope.

 

[Starbreaker]

2000 - 8th grade. My first year of marching band though. That was cool.
2001 - Started high school. Hated most of it.
2002 - Still hated high school.
2003 - Started dating a girl and that would last for almost three years. What a bitch
2004 - High school still sucked
2005 - My first year of college was awesome. Probably the best time of my life.
2006 - Dated a couple of crazy girls
2007 - Had my heart ripped out, stomped on, and then bludgeoned with a baseball bat on fire.
2008 - Nothing memorable, really
2009 - Got my shit together, graduated, and now am just on cruise control until I can find a job.

 

[Kirby]

2000 - Not much to say about 2000.
2001 - I can't remember much except the events in September
2002 - My son was born, awesome year!
2003 - A very good year. Among the highlights was I met up with some long lost friends who I now see on a regular basis.
2004 - A very bad year. So many problems at work, and lots of long hours.
2005 - Another very bad year. We had our first round of layoffs at work, and the Department I was in was decimated from 72 to 15 people, and I had to lead them. My hard work in 2004 saved my job.
2006 - Our company merged with another and I was promoted and given the job that I really enjoyed, and still do!
2007 - Colorado Rockies miracle run in September, making it all the way to the World Series! Fun year all around.
2008 - My daughter was born, awesome year!
2009 - Another good year, the Rockies did well most of the year, and seeing my daughter grow and develop is amazing (It was different from my son in that with him I was terrified what would happen next). Work is scary, we're essentially being legislated out of existance, but we may have a few good years left in us.

 

[What's his face]

2000 - First year of high school. Not nearly as scary as I had thought it would be. I was a science nerd. I planned to be an engineer. My English teacher, on the other hand, thought different. Apparently I had the potential to be a very skilled writer (I don't really try too hard here at TBBS )

2001 - Enrolled in pre-engineering classes. I made a remote control blimp out of a disassembled RC monster truck and 2 mylar blankets. I remember that class when we first learned about 9/11. Not much happened.

2002 - Got my G1 driver's license. Learned how to drive stick.

2003 (meh) - Got my g2 driver's license after failing my first try. Apparently stealing right-of-way from another vehicle is a no-no. Late in the year I get a speeding ticket. I've been driving like a granny ever since.

2004 (meh) - Got my full driver's license. Graduated from H.S. I excelled in physics in the theoretical part but blew at the math part. I also found Grade 12 calculus and crazy geometry math classes way too much. I realized if engineering was all math, then I wanted nothing to do with it. I decided to take a year off and decide what to do. I found the presidential election incredibly interesting and decided on political science.

2005 - first year of university. Stupid loud roommates. Made plenty of friends, though.

2006 - Spent the summer working in Ottawa for a cabinet minister. Sweetest summer job ever. 2nd year blew. Shittier roommates. I hated school and my marks reflected it.

2007 - More time with shitty roommates. 3rd year was better than 2nd year.

2008 - Began 4th year with totally new, better roommates. Stole an Obama lawn sign off of someone's lawn (yes, in Canada. We're weird).

2009 (so far, )- Graduated, feeling unfulfilled. Thanks to the recession, this recent graduate spent April-December doing manual labour and grass cutting. Depression and feelings of worthlessness ensure. It's awful.

That is, until last week, when out of nowhere, a job comes along - a job working for a political consultant in Toronto. We'll be meeting in 2 weeks (after the holidays are over) to discuss salary. It appears that 2009 may yet redeem itself in its final days.

 

[Jetfire]

They all sucked.

 

[TheGodBen]

2000: I don't remember much, I was 14 and the only thing of note is that I went to Paris on a school trip. One of the TV stations in the hotel showed porn at night, and that's how I was introduced to something called a "facial".

2001: I was summoned to Clavius base on an urgent mission and I took my sweet time getting there. I was killed by a high-pitched noise coming from a tall black monolith. This was very fortunate because it meant I didn't live long enough to witness the rest of the boring events which happened that year.

2001 in reality: Junior Cert exams, not much special this year either.

2002: Some interesting things happened, but a mostly boring year. Got a PS2 and GTA Vice City for Christmas, awwwww yeaaaah.

(Note to self: Never say that again, you look like a twonk.)

2003: Did my Leaving Cert and went to uni. This is the year where I unknowingly ruined my own life.

2004: A sedate year where I continued the mistakes of the previous year without realising that they were mistakes. Mildly amusing at the time.

2005: The year when those mistakes began to take their toll. A hard year, but in the final months hope reared its head.

2006: A supremely awesome year, the best in my life thus far. Still a hard year, but things were going to right way. I was... happy. Openly. With no trace of cynicism.

2007: I graduated college. Another supremely awesome year, until the final bit when I lost it all. New Year's Eve was one of the hardest days of my life.

2008: Dark, bleak and unforgiving; the year when I lost who I was and learned who I really am. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I even ended up on this BBS, that's how bad things got. But it was an important year, and one I'm glad I went through if only because I'm stronger for it.

2009: The year where the universe keeps putting me down. But I'm going to keep on pounding that grindstone (it's a legitimate turn of phrase) and I'm sure things will work out in the end. And if not I've still got alcohol to fall back on.

 

[trampledamage]

2000: Work sucked. Went on driving holiday to Canada which was awesome! Work sucked so bad, had to take time off for stress

2001: Work still sucked, spent most of my time faking it and surfing the internet

2002: Work was hard but working on a new project made it slightly less sucky.

2003: Start application process to emigrate to Canada. Work sucks

2004: Two things happened on May 1st - got letter saying we could do our medicals for Canadian emigration (which means we were at the final stage) and pregnancy test came back positive. Canadians very happy to pause application for a baby. little miss trampledamage becomes centre of the known universe in December.

2005: Work beyond stressful. Nightmare day in July, I'm in work in the centre of Belfast, Protestant rioters decide to block all but one route out of the city, little miss trampledamage is in daycare on the other side of the blockade. All medicals done, visas for immigration issued! October sees the office closing and everyone made redundant. mr trampledamage gets told off for being too happy about the redundancy pay, since we're moving to Canada anyway, Joined TrekBBS.

2006: Move to Canada.

2007: young master trampledamage becomes the second centre of the universe in January Buy house in Saskatoon.

2008: Get house painted peppermint green, much to the horror of the house painter. little miss trampledamage goes to preschool.

2009: Head back to England and Ireland to see family, introduce them all to young master trampledamage. Everyone enchanted. Both kids fall in love with the sea-side. little miss trampledamage starts kindergarten.

 

[bigdaddy]

2000 was the last decade.
2001 SHIT
2002 Shit
2003 Shit
2004 OK
2005 Ehh
2006 Good
2007 Crap
2008 Good
2009 No clue

 

[What's his face]

2003: Start application process to emigrate to Canada. Work sucks

2007: young master trampledamage becomes the second centre of the universe in January Buy house in Saskatoon.

Wait, lemme get this straight.... you voluntarily moved to Saskatoon?

 

[trampledamage]

2003: Start application process to emigrate to Canada. Work sucks

2007: young master trampledamage becomes the second centre of the universe in January Buy house in Saskatoon.

Wait, lemme get this straight.... you voluntarily moved to Saskatoon?

Yep! Love it Even if it is -45 with the wind-chill right now.

 

[Arrqh]

2000: Graduated high school, started my engineering degree at college. Things were pretty good!
2001: My worst year of the decade. Broke up with girlfriend of several years in May and it took until summer of 2002 before I even started to think about getting over it. My GPA never really recovered from the hit it took this year.
2002: First half was meh for above reason, but things started to work themselves out. Sadly lost touch with most high school friends, but made some great new ones.
2003: It occurred to me that the majority of the work I was doing involved in my degree wasn't actually so interesting. Decided that summer that I didn't want to stay in the field and to instead turn my art hobby into a career, but wanted to finish the degree anyway.
2004: Graduated with my BSc. Accepted to new school, but had to wait six months for session to start, so took crap job at Sprint to save money up for living expenses.
2005: Moved out of NJ for the first time, spent the whole year at school in Vancouver. Crazy amount of work, but had a great time! Finished the program in December.
2006: Had no money left (which was expected), so moved back to NJ to job hunt. Got job offer in April. Moved to Edmonton in June once work visa paperwork went through.
2007: Froze to death in January due to winter temperatures.
2008: Still frozen.
2009: Still frozen.