Theme Week 2: Perspectives and Events

I'd like to start this piece with a bit of a confession: I have no real concept of time. This isn't really in the traditional sense, I'm pretty well aware of the hours of the day, when I'm late for class or how much time I've spent doing a project or home work. It's not like some people I know who have their own time zone. What has me baffled is the passing of months, years, decades; before I know it a fairly large chunk of time has pretty much flown by. For example I feel that not overly too much time has passed since I first started college despite the fact that I'm well into my second year at EMCC.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that this is something a bit alien to my way of perception. I hesitate to use the phrase 'alien to my way of thinking' because, well, I understand the concept behind the passage of time as well as the signs (I do have more than a few grey hairs by now...) I simply just don't notice it like most people.

Alright, so we need a starting point..let's do a decade shall we? Not counting this year, it's a bit young for interesting things to have occurred yet, though I'm sure they have, so we'll start with 2001. In '01 I was two years out of high school kind of feeling my way through life and doing my own thing, it was the first year I really started to travel abroad and see the country, but most of all I remember '01 like most people do: The attack on the twin tower. I think the majority of people can recall where they were and what they were doing that day. As for myself I was sitting at home chatting with a friend from New York when it happened. Neither of us knew what was going on, he simply said he had to go. That a bomb had gone off. Of course later I found out what had happened...saying 'it was a terrible day' just seems to be an understatement but that's the best I can sum it up with words.

In '03 there was, of course, the beginning of the Iraq war initiated by President Bush. I think I was working that day in Brewer, it was kind of a 'go figure' sort of thing as the nation had been feeling this build up for some time. I remember that I didn't quite agree with the conflict, that it just seemed kinda shady and slapdash. Hindsight being what it is I feel pretty justified in that assessment. Regardless, like most Americans I think, I just shrugged my shoulders and went about my daily life. I'm sure if we'd known what we know now there might have been some second looks at the motivations for the conflict at the outset.

'05 saw Israel withdraw from the Gaza Strip, ironically this happened on September 11th. To be honest I didn't really mark this event while it passed, I think I was too busy discovering I liked beer and had way too many social groups going on than was probably constructive. I think mostly my friends and I were discussing the '01 attacks and the ramifications that we could observe in the world around us.

Some time during '06 North Korea conducted it's first nuclear tests. I actually remember this one pretty clearly because it was all the rage at my work place and with pretty much anyone I knew. There was a palpable sense of worry over what would happen if 'the crazy North Koreans' managed to get enough missile tech to actually conduct nuclear war. Also, on a lighter note, Pluto was declared a 'planitoid' that year....now this was something that had everyone I know up in arms! Hell, I'm still a little miffed about it and consider our farthest neighbor to still be a planet!

Then there was '08 when I learned there was a country called Georgia and it had been invaded by the country formally known as the U.S.S.R. What actually struck me as interesting about this little conflict is that the Russians were claiming to be within the Georgian boarder for humanitarian efforts. Who knew you needed tanks to deliver aid to the civilian populace! I still shake my head and mutter 'silly Russians' when I think back on the first news broadcast. Oddly enough I recently came across a Georgian coin at my work place and now have it tucked away as a sort of interesting keepsake.

Of course in '09 Barack Obama was elected president of the United states. Our first African American president ever to hold office. I distinctly remember the hype around it and even got swept up in it a little. The man is a superior speaker and offered the American people something that they hadn't been offered before: A change from the norm; politics as usual were at an end! Or so we were promised.

I can't rightly recall much of note in '10 save that Leslie Nielsen passed away during my second semester of College. For days after we would quote Airplane or any other numerous one liners from his movies, I guess, in a way that's how we paid tribute to the man.

'11....Well what can I say for this past year? Civil unrest on a massive scale, the conclusion of the Iraq war (About time don't you think?) and the emergence of 'The Protester' on the front page of time magazine. I don't think I can recall a time in recent memory when the peoples of the world have been so discontent with their governments. No matter who you were, you knew about political events that were emerging around the world; if you didn't you simply had to be living underneath a rock. It's been an interesting year, that much is for certain!