As I sat down to write my last column of the decade, I found myself unable to resist the temptation to examine my own life over the past 10 years. All the other columnists seem to be looking in the rear-view mirror this week — those who aren't taking a break from writing for the holidays —and much as I didn't want to go with that flow, sometimes the flow is too hard to resist.
After all, on Dec. 29, 2000, I was a senior in college. I'd brought my then-girlfriend to a family Christmas in Charlotte, N.C. It was, though I didn't know it at the time, the last time I'd gather with my mom's family for a Christmas celebration. I hope it wasn't the last time for good, but we've still been unable to make travel plans work.
Three family members present at that Christmas are no longer with us. Three have been born since then, too — one cousin and my own two children with that girlfriend who in June 2002 became my wife.
In the last decade, we both graduated from college — as did three of our siblings in one 20-day span in 2007. In this decade I have drawn paychecks from seven different full- and part-time employers. Kristie, I think, can count nine. Including dorm rooms, and going home in the summer, we have lived under a total of 13 different roofs.
We opened the decade driving barely functioning cars, and took on two new car loans in 2002 — and have kept both vehicles on the road for the duration. Now the battle is to see if my white 1998 Buick Century, which is going gray as it ages and paint chips fall off, can stay street legal until we bite the bullet and get a mini-van. The old girl has more than 160,000 miles, but the new tires her folks gave me for Christmas a few years ago are supposed to last until she hits 200,000.
Continue reading "10 years gone, many, many changes."
No comments:
Post a Comment