Theme Week Two - My Story

At the time of my birth, apart from God, no one could have known what the future would hold. I could have never guessed that the events that have shaped my life would have occurred as they have. Yet, somehow, looking back on it all so far, it seems as if it was all laid out for me. Like bricks paving the road before me as I walk.

Everything has a beginning. At the start, the 80's were reaching their end and hip hop was coming alive. Reagan demanded of Gorbachev, “tear down this wall,” and with that, the end of an era. But it was the beginning of another. Out of the 80's and into the 90's.

Styles changed. People stopped wearing knee-high striped socks with purple and lime spandex and a headband, and they began to wear ripped jeans with over sized jackets and sweaters; hair greasy and long. Nirvana. Pearl Jam. The battle between Whitney and Mariah. Music changed. Hair metal was out, and Seattle grunge was in.

I wore ugly sweaters, ugly shirts, ugly shoes, and ugly pants. I had a bowl haircut. The styles I the 90's didn't make sense and it didn't seem to matter.

I remember sitting in my living room and seeing the images of the gulf war on the television. An old wooden paneled looking television by the way. It was something I could not have comprehended at the time, but would affect my future tremendously.

The economy was good. My dad had plenty of work at his fathers delivery company. New businesses were prospering, people were spending, and all of my Christmas' were bountiful. The economic foundation laid by Reagan was, to a large degree, perpetuated by Bush and Clinton. But so was the spending of the government; something that would soon come to dominate my future.

Y2K. New years eve me, my family, and a neighbor stood and watched the goings on at Times Square in New York. We joked about what might happen, all of us out in the waists, scrounging for food. But inside we were all uncertain. That is until the moment of truth came and set us free. Everyone was then certain. We were emboldened. Nothing was going to stop, nothing was going to shut down. The Bubble would burst, however, only a year and a half later.

It was terrifying. Me and my entire eighth grade class watched on the screens on the wall, totally confused. We joked around, unable to fully comprehend what was happening, but we could see on the teachers faces that this was no ordinary day in our lives. Terrorists had blown up our countries greatest buildings. The new president was trapped in Air Force One by the uncertainty of what, or who, was next. It was the seminal moment in my life. And quite possibly the most influential moment of the last, or next one hundred years. Everything changed on September 11, 2001. A new beginning.

The last half of my life was uneventful; apart from two wars, our first black president, and general pandemonium economically and politically. We went to war in Afghanistan first, to attack those responsible for 9/11, and then Iraq second, to stop Saddam Hussein. We became mired, however. Thoes against the war, and who were against the president from the beginning, grew in number. I didn't enlist, but my cousin did. Bush was drummed out of office amidst a massive economic meltdown. The great recession as it is now aptly named.

Our first black president gave new hope to many. But those days have now ended. Continued economic unrest and stagflation, continued wars overseas, and a dramatic influx of racial animosity have left me uncertain of my future. But then again, the future is always uncertain.

My life has been the story of War and Peace, Scandals, economic booms and busts, and catastrophe. Like bricks paving the road before me as I walk, the future is unclear, and the past seems like it has always been.