Yep, on the radio in the morning they say "You think it's cold here, listen to the temperatures they're having in Edmonton right now!"
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Yep, on the radio in the morning they say "You think it's cold here, listen to the temperatures they're having in Edmonton right now!"
2001: Sophomore Year College. Total hermit stage. No friends. No interaction with roommate.
2002: Junior Year College. Got my first job over the summer cleaning dishes and makin' sandwiches. Back to college with a new drive, join a group of friends.
2003: Senior Year College. Met my new group of friends including my future fiancee. Got my car. Taught high school for a semester and hated. Got a girlfriend. Moved up north. The year of change and magic.
2004: Got my own apartment living alone for the first time. Got a new job at the video store. Long distance relationship with the GF.
2005: The GF moves in permanently. I write an entire book. We get engaged. This is the happiest year of my life.
2006-2007: uh...
2008: Grow to despise the video store. GF gets a new job elsewhere. Video store closes down and gets laid off. Unemployed. The worst year of recent memory.
2009: Spent nine months unemployed. Start volunteering at the library. Get a new job at a bank. Finally feel worthwhile again! Yay.
2002: Junior Year College. Got my first job over the summer cleaning dishes and makin' sandwiches. Back to college with a new drive, join a group of friends.
2003: Senior Year College. Met my new group of friends including my future fiancee. Got my car. Taught high school for a semester and hated. Got a girlfriend. Moved up north. The year of change and magic.
2004: Got my own apartment living alone for the first time. Got a new job at the video store. Long distance relationship with the GF.
2005: The GF moves in permanently. I write an entire book. We get engaged. This is the happiest year of my life.
2006-2007: uh...
2008: Grow to despise the video store. GF gets a new job elsewhere. Video store closes down and gets laid off. Unemployed. The worst year of recent memory.
2009: Spent nine months unemployed. Start volunteering at the library. Get a new job at a bank. Finally feel worthwhile again! Yay.
I'll give it a shot. I'm mostly judging by a couple of key things or a general what I was doing:
2000 - Fine, I guess. I was still in Middle School at this point. I can't remember if this was the year I went on a cruise with my family or to Arizona. Either way, it was nice, but nothing life-changing.
2001 - The only thing that stands out from this year was September 11th. I don't think I was entirely able to appreciate the scope of it, but we did drive past New York on that day.
2002 - This year kinda felt like a waste. Too long to describe. I did start posting on message boards, so I guess that's where a clear part of my life began.
2003 - A milestone year in some ways. My family had the first family reunion ever (so I met cousins for the first time that I clearly remember). I also got to go to Niagara Falls. I'm officially registered from around this time, so I began to get involved with the BBS.
2004 - I transfered to a new high school after being officially in a new state. Pretty much awkward all around. It was about this time that I started listening to music a lot, which I think helped me get through it by having something to turn to.
2005 - Second half junior year, first half senior year. It would be around this time I finally got adjusted to the people at school and sorta fit in. More beginning of senior year (won the championship game) than end of junior year.
2006 - Second half senior year, first half freshmen year of college. College was a fun change, plus I had a really enjoyable final two months of high school (I only miss Senior year to be honest, the rest sucked).
2007 - Second half freshmen year of college, first half sophomore. I solidified the friend group I have (more or less) and had the most school spirit of any College year (seeing my team go to the championship in football). Also, my first TrekBBS meetup and becoming a mod were in this year. I'm going to go with second favorite year of the decade.
2008 - Second half sophomore year, first half junior. Winter in London. Might be my favorite year of the decade.
2009 - OK, but not great. Second half junior year, first half senior year. I've been very busy and I got some crap luck with tickets and other expenses. But I do have a trip to Italy that was amazing.
In short, started off crappy, but got better. The good news is I can point to clear milestones in my development as a person.
EDIT: I feel like adding a future one:
2010 - Not sure, but I have goals. End of the decade for me will probably be summer of 2010 because that's when I graduate. When the next few weeks tick by, not much will have changed from what I face now.
2000 - Fine, I guess. I was still in Middle School at this point. I can't remember if this was the year I went on a cruise with my family or to Arizona. Either way, it was nice, but nothing life-changing.
2001 - The only thing that stands out from this year was September 11th. I don't think I was entirely able to appreciate the scope of it, but we did drive past New York on that day.
2002 - This year kinda felt like a waste. Too long to describe. I did start posting on message boards, so I guess that's where a clear part of my life began.
2003 - A milestone year in some ways. My family had the first family reunion ever (so I met cousins for the first time that I clearly remember). I also got to go to Niagara Falls. I'm officially registered from around this time, so I began to get involved with the BBS.
2004 - I transfered to a new high school after being officially in a new state. Pretty much awkward all around. It was about this time that I started listening to music a lot, which I think helped me get through it by having something to turn to.
2005 - Second half junior year, first half senior year. It would be around this time I finally got adjusted to the people at school and sorta fit in. More beginning of senior year (won the championship game) than end of junior year.
2006 - Second half senior year, first half freshmen year of college. College was a fun change, plus I had a really enjoyable final two months of high school (I only miss Senior year to be honest, the rest sucked).
2007 - Second half freshmen year of college, first half sophomore. I solidified the friend group I have (more or less) and had the most school spirit of any College year (seeing my team go to the championship in football). Also, my first TrekBBS meetup and becoming a mod were in this year. I'm going to go with second favorite year of the decade.
2008 - Second half sophomore year, first half junior. Winter in London. Might be my favorite year of the decade.
2009 - OK, but not great. Second half junior year, first half senior year. I've been very busy and I got some crap luck with tickets and other expenses. But I do have a trip to Italy that was amazing.
In short, started off crappy, but got better. The good news is I can point to clear milestones in my development as a person.
EDIT: I feel like adding a future one:
2010 - Not sure, but I have goals. End of the decade for me will probably be summer of 2010 because that's when I graduate. When the next few weeks tick by, not much will have changed from what I face now.
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Yep, on the radio in the morning they say "You think it's cold here, listen to the temperatures they're having in Edmonton right now!"
This weekend, I was comparing temperatures with a friend in Florida. The difference was 120F between him and me!
I don't think you should feel that way. I definitely knew the first half was going to suck for me, but it was definitely a good exercise to reflect on what happened. It also helps because even when you think there isn't much, you always learn from something.
BTW, to everyone. I'm doing my best to read these to be fair to anyone who tries to read mine.
A
Amaris
Guest
[2000] This was a terrible year.
[2001] This was a terrible year.
[2002] I was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
[2003] This was a terrible year.
[2004] This was a terrible year.
[2005] Both grandparents die.
[2006] This was a terrible year.
[2007] I was diagnosed with Diabetes.
[2008] This was a terrible year.
[2009] This was a terrible year.
J.
[2001] This was a terrible year.
[2002] I was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
[2003] This was a terrible year.
[2004] This was a terrible year.
[2005] Both grandparents die.
[2006] This was a terrible year.
[2007] I was diagnosed with Diabetes.
[2008] This was a terrible year.
[2009] This was a terrible year.
J.
2000 - Final year of high school. It was a pretty good year.
2001 - Took a gap year. Lived with my sister in the city and spent 8 months working full-time at KFC, 5 days a week, 40+ hours. The early mornings sucked to get to work but I worked with good people and enjoyed it.
2002 - First year at uni doing a degree in IT. Lived in a shared house with good people for the first semester. Second semester moved into college, good year socially. Dad diagnosed with cancer but made it through it but familywise it sucked as a year.
2003 - Continued with my degree and I came to realise I hated it so much. Switched to a new degree half way through the year. Continued to live in college and enjoy it. Started to work in a job to help me through uni.
2004 - Continued with my degree and job. Started to really hate it. I missed out on a lot of fun on college due to my job on the weekend. Mixed year socially. Got screwed over by a chick but made some good friends on college.
2005 - Quit job. My best decision of the year. Still on college, making me the old man of my floor. Time to move on. Pretty average year.
2006 - Moved into a shared house with a friend from college for six months. Finish degree and apply for a Masters degree but just before Christmas find out my dad's cancer is back. Save for that last bit, which ruined the last 10 years of the year it was a good year.
2007 - Good start, my two best friends get married (to other people). Live with my dad and spend a lot of time at hospital over the year. The uni also screws me around with my degree by dropping, ressurecting it half way and giving me a shit alternative that means more work but means I'll end up with a weaker qualification at the end. I stupidly agree to it. Have to take six months off. Bad year.
2008 - Worse year. More time at hospital. Masters continues to go shit.
2009 - My dad passes away at the start of the year. I drop out of my degree and take a grad certificate for the work I did...which I could and should have done in 2007 instead of wasting 1 1/2 years. Spent 5 months job hunting and not getting anything. Shit year.
2001 - Took a gap year. Lived with my sister in the city and spent 8 months working full-time at KFC, 5 days a week, 40+ hours. The early mornings sucked to get to work but I worked with good people and enjoyed it.
2002 - First year at uni doing a degree in IT. Lived in a shared house with good people for the first semester. Second semester moved into college, good year socially. Dad diagnosed with cancer but made it through it but familywise it sucked as a year.
2003 - Continued with my degree and I came to realise I hated it so much. Switched to a new degree half way through the year. Continued to live in college and enjoy it. Started to work in a job to help me through uni.
2004 - Continued with my degree and job. Started to really hate it. I missed out on a lot of fun on college due to my job on the weekend. Mixed year socially. Got screwed over by a chick but made some good friends on college.
2005 - Quit job. My best decision of the year. Still on college, making me the old man of my floor. Time to move on. Pretty average year.
2006 - Moved into a shared house with a friend from college for six months. Finish degree and apply for a Masters degree but just before Christmas find out my dad's cancer is back. Save for that last bit, which ruined the last 10 years of the year it was a good year.
2007 - Good start, my two best friends get married (to other people). Live with my dad and spend a lot of time at hospital over the year. The uni also screws me around with my degree by dropping, ressurecting it half way and giving me a shit alternative that means more work but means I'll end up with a weaker qualification at the end. I stupidly agree to it. Have to take six months off. Bad year.
2008 - Worse year. More time at hospital. Masters continues to go shit.
2009 - My dad passes away at the start of the year. I drop out of my degree and take a grad certificate for the work I did...which I could and should have done in 2007 instead of wasting 1 1/2 years. Spent 5 months job hunting and not getting anything. Shit year.
2000 - Challenging start, steadily got better. My brother is born and I decide he's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
2001 - Beginning is a low point, second half improves by making one important decision.
2002 - Got my first job, had more fun than I could have imagined, and learned a lot about myself.
2003 - Little bundle of joy that is my sister is born. New job, new people, hanging out a lot, perhaps more than is wise.
2004 - Tried a new life in Kenya, but ran for the hills within a few weeks. Ended the year on a high note.
2005 - Settle into a job in a London hospital which turns out to be horrendously depressing. Move out of home for the first time.
2006 - Huge family problems. Very stressful few months. Pull out of the slump rapidly and meet someone new and wonderful.
2007 - Move onto another flat. Feel more settled. Happiest I've been for some years. Great grandmother dies.
2008 - Lots of ups and downs. Somewhat chaotic. Always a sparkling silver lining though.
2009 - Made tremendous personal progress in one key area during the autumn. Another year ending on a high note.
2001 - Beginning is a low point, second half improves by making one important decision.
2002 - Got my first job, had more fun than I could have imagined, and learned a lot about myself.
2003 - Little bundle of joy that is my sister is born. New job, new people, hanging out a lot, perhaps more than is wise.
2004 - Tried a new life in Kenya, but ran for the hills within a few weeks.
Ended the year on a high note.2005 - Settle into a job in a London hospital which turns out to be horrendously depressing. Move out of home for the first time.
2006 - Huge family problems. Very stressful few months. Pull out of the slump rapidly and meet someone new and wonderful.
2007 - Move onto another flat. Feel more settled. Happiest I've been for some years. Great grandmother dies.
2008 - Lots of ups and downs. Somewhat chaotic. Always a sparkling silver lining though.
2009 - Made tremendous personal progress in one key area during the autumn. Another year ending on a high note.
It's good of you to read these responses. The problem with threads like this is that people often rush in to give their own responses and don't bother to read anyone else's.
Re: reflecting on what happened ... it's very difficult for me. The past decade has been dominated by a struggle with mental illness for me that very few people online or in RL realize. In that way the whole thing has been a rollercoaster. I started the decade being outright suicidal, getting some treatment, then having the depression come in waves, feeling better for a time, then getting to the point where I was having anxiety attacks every time I heard a phone ring. At this point I stopped even being able to get out of bed most days and all my energy went into making others think I still had a normal life when it was anything but that.
Needless to say, all of that has affected both my academic situation and also my personal relationships. There have been a lot of failures. I feel like in the past decade I've both made and lost many good friends. I've gone through a crazy ride when it comes to romantic relationships, and I've lost a relationship of any kind with my sister due to mental illness and substance abuse. I've seen my entire family struggle with different issues and I've worried about the family fracturing.
I'd like to say that I've learned from reflecting on things, but honestly a lot of the time it just brings me down so low that I simply cannot focus on it. I think the only thing I have learned is that I hit some really bad lows and I still managed to keep going. And that does give me some comfort.
I tried to read them but they got so depressing I just stopped.
I started reading this thread thinking "how on earth can people remember that far back!" but then I realised I could actually piece it together too. It's interesting to see how things change over 10 years. It's also making me feel really old
So many people were still in school...Knowing that you can take that and survive, is a good memory to hold. Good luck for the future, Kestra
Mine has a happy ending
People work all their lives just to lead up to the point where they can do that if they want to...
You sound as though you're feeling much better than that now though...
I've read the entire thread and I think that we have all been there or are going to be there with the peaks and valleys of life. Remember that if you have a mountain in front of you, the view on the top is spectacular.
2000: My Jr/Sr year in HS. I was really busy, more than I have ever been (or probably will be). My days would start at me being in school for basketball conditioning at 5:30AM, classes until 2:30, marching band until 5:30, and then driving an hour for youth orchestra until 9PM. And then doing it all over again the next day.
2001: I graduated HS and got into UC Berkeley. One of the best/worst decisions I have ever made. In hindsight, I wish I had went to community college first as it was a huge change of pace, but I also met some lifelong friends. Started out as a Computer Science Major.
2002: It's when things started to fall apart in school. My spring went okay, but I failed my Java class in the fall.
2003: Failed the Java class again and switched to Cognitive Science as a major.
2004: That lasted all of a semester before I switched to Political Science. Class were going so poorly in the Spring that I withdrew for the semester. I also was getting really sick where I was vomiting 2-6 times a day. Found out that summer I had a brain tumor. An experience that I am still recovering from mentally. Had even more fun that summer when I ended up getting a staph infection at the site of the operation a month later. I foolishly decided to still enroll in school and spent my first two weeks in classes hooked up to an IV.
2005: I couldn't keep up with my classes and ended up getting dismissed because I had two failing semesters in a row. That fall I moved home under some pretense, though my parents did not know I had been dismissed. I won a poker tournamnet to attend a poker fantasy camp for $26 the last fall for March of 2005. I also won a poker tournament during the camp for entry into the WSOP and sold it for $10,000. I do not collect the money until January of 2006.
2006: I start my brief career as a professional poker player. I found out that I did not have the long term patience for it and crashed and burned over the course of May-August. I went broker, but I can say two things: I was able to pay off all of debts and I know what it is like to lose $20,000 in a single day. I am pretty desensitized to money at this point.
2007: I am broke and living month to month. During the summer, I move in with my father, sort of explain what is going on, and resolve to get my life back on track. In the fall I enroll in a local JC and get a Congressional internship at my Congresswoman's local office.
2008: I get back into Berkeley and start to be the student I should have always been. I make connections with Teachers and put together a good plan for my future.
2009: Graduated with a degree in Political Science, got two letters of recommendation from a professor and one from a Congresswoman and got a job. It's not exactly what I would like to end up doing (I'm an IT Analyst), but it is where I want to be.
2000: My Jr/Sr year in HS. I was really busy, more than I have ever been (or probably will be). My days would start at me being in school for basketball conditioning at 5:30AM, classes until 2:30, marching band until 5:30, and then driving an hour for youth orchestra until 9PM. And then doing it all over again the next day.
2001: I graduated HS and got into UC Berkeley. One of the best/worst decisions I have ever made. In hindsight, I wish I had went to community college first as it was a huge change of pace, but I also met some lifelong friends. Started out as a Computer Science Major.
2002: It's when things started to fall apart in school. My spring went okay, but I failed my Java class in the fall.
2003: Failed the Java class again and switched to Cognitive Science as a major.
2004: That lasted all of a semester before I switched to Political Science. Class were going so poorly in the Spring that I withdrew for the semester. I also was getting really sick where I was vomiting 2-6 times a day. Found out that summer I had a brain tumor. An experience that I am still recovering from mentally. Had even more fun that summer when I ended up getting a staph infection at the site of the operation a month later. I foolishly decided to still enroll in school and spent my first two weeks in classes hooked up to an IV.
2005: I couldn't keep up with my classes and ended up getting dismissed because I had two failing semesters in a row. That fall I moved home under some pretense, though my parents did not know I had been dismissed. I won a poker tournamnet to attend a poker fantasy camp for $26 the last fall for March of 2005. I also won a poker tournament during the camp for entry into the WSOP and sold it for $10,000. I do not collect the money until January of 2006.
2006: I start my brief career as a professional poker player. I found out that I did not have the long term patience for it and crashed and burned over the course of May-August. I went broker, but I can say two things: I was able to pay off all of debts and I know what it is like to lose $20,000 in a single day. I am pretty desensitized to money at this point.
2007: I am broke and living month to month. During the summer, I move in with my father, sort of explain what is going on, and resolve to get my life back on track. In the fall I enroll in a local JC and get a Congressional internship at my Congresswoman's local office.
2008: I get back into Berkeley and start to be the student I should have always been. I make connections with Teachers and put together a good plan for my future.
2009: Graduated with a degree in Political Science, got two letters of recommendation from a professor and one from a Congresswoman and got a job. It's not exactly what I would like to end up doing (I'm an IT Analyst), but it is where I want to be.
L
Lord Garth
Guest
So, overall, either the decade was:
1. Horrible all the way around.
2. Was okay-to-good then took a turn for the worse.
3. Was a shaky start but got better.
With the worst being 2007-2009, where there were also the most ups and downs.
1. Horrible all the way around.
2. Was okay-to-good then took a turn for the worse.
3. Was a shaky start but got better.
With the worst being 2007-2009, where there were also the most ups and downs.
Come on, Trek BBS someone out there must have had a good from start to end decade (or with a dip in the middle).
L
Lord Garth
Guest
So we just need someone who's had a great decade from start to finish and we've covered all the bases
If there is that someone, they should write a book. They'd make good money. I'm sure all of us here at TBBS would buy it.
The beginning of the decade wasn't bad for me, it just wasn't memorable. I think at the time I merely acted out the present, I didn't look forward to the future. Now I'm more conscious of what's going on now and what's to come.
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