Last post of the decade.
Ten years ago, the world was in disarray trying to figure out how to stop computers from blowing up the world when the year turned from 99 to 00. I was eight years old, in third grade, and wondering why they can’t just put a giant brick wall in front of every missile so the world won’t blow up. I think it’s safe to say I’ve grown quite a bit since. According to my third grade time capsule, I wanted to be a lawyer and my favorite TV show was Pokemon at the beginning of the decade. By the end, I’m majoring in finance and computer science and minoring in math while my favorite TV show is How I Met Your Mother. I think it’s for the better…
Ten years is a long time but it seemed to have gone by so quickly. It’s kind of hard to think of, but here’s some of the most memorable moments of the decade.
- High school graduation: It was such a happy, yet somewhat frightening moment. End of an era, beginning of another. It was insane to see how excited everyone was and it was just all smiles. What made it amazing was that it was spent with some great friends. I wish there were more of these moments to share with friends, but I guess that’s what makes it special.
- Italy trip: One country. Seven cities. Fourteen days. Sixteen high school graduates. Thousands of pictures taken. Countless memories and great times that will last a lifetime. Yeah those were an amazing two weeks. It was so surreal. The sights that we were given the opportunity to see and the people that I got to see it with were nothing short of awesome. I don’t even know how else to describe it. It was such a blast and I hope I’ll be back there again.
- Senior Prom and Post-prom weekend: It went by really quickly. And it wasn’t quite as great as people build it up to be. But regardless, it was, like graduation, another event in my life that symbolizes the turning point between one time period to another. I actually still think the best part was doing pictures before prom. Post-prom was another great weekend. I will always remember the picture we took of a whole group of us on the beach in the pouring rain. Then the following days spent on the beach. It was great.
- End of eight grade: Rainbow class of ‘06. Not much to say here. Looking back at some pictures, we seemed to have been legitimately happy about ourselves and everything going on. Hershey Park in the rain. Dorney Park in the sweltering hot sun. Eight grade formal. And not to mention that I liked this really cool girl and she liked me back too. What a concept.
(This picture is hilarious). - Senior year homecoming: …I was happy. Really happy.
- 2007 USSBA All-States Championships in Allentown: Yes, we won two others in the years I was in the band, but this one was just beyond exhilarating. There was just something about the atmosphere that day that put this one over the top.
- First Yankees game: Sure, it wasn’t the most exciting game ever. One-hitter thrown by Sergio Mitre through eight innings and finished off by Chad Gaudin. A-rod hit a bullet homerun to right field. Pretty much a blowout game. But I’ll never forget my first ever Yankees game, simply because I’m the biggest baseball dork in the world.
- Yankees winning 2009 World Series: Andy Pettitte got the win. Mo got the save. A-rod did what he needed to do. And Hit-deki played impressively in his last game in pinstripes. We sat in front of the TV throughout the whole game, watching every play. We cheered, jumped, screamed as Tex made the final putout to end an epic 2009 season. That was a good day.
- September 11, 2001: During recess in fifth grade, I overheard two teachers talking about planes crashing over two buildings in New York City. I obviously did not know what was going on and shrugged it off. Parents started taking my classmates out of school, yet the school never let us know what was going on. When my mom came to pick me up, she asked me if I knew and told me what happened. I remember coming home and both my mom and I sat riveted to the TV for the rest of the afternoon. I was young but it’s one of those things that stick.
- FBLA Nationals in Chicago: One of few achievements that really stick out in my mind. It was so exciting to be able to go up on stage at the states competition to pick up my award and ultimately finding out that I have the opportunity to compete at the national level. That trip was somewhat of a first taste of freedom as we were pretty much unsupervised. The greatest part was walking through downtown Chicago around midnight with a friend and looking at the wonderful sights around the lake and throughout the city.
So there we have it, my list of the decade’s most memorable events. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything obvious. Ten years is such an incredibly long time; so many things happened. I really wish I could go back and look at everything to see what I did right or what I did wrong. Where would I be now if I took a certain thing more seriously, or made a different choice?
Lately, as I look back on some of the things that have shaped me, I realize how much potential there was for me to do well in certain things. Tennis, for example. I love playing tennis but I never seemed to take it seriously enough to make myself a standout player. I regret wasting my time in the summers in front of the computer rather than outside working on my serves. Violin, too. I could have been so much better if I had realized how great it would be to be spectacular at something musical. I can’t sing or dance, but I think that if I had pushed myself just a little harder to enjoy playing the violin, I could be in a much better position today. It’s hard to believe, but I feel like now that I’m in college, my window of opportunity to learn these things has all but closed. I don’t want to give up what I have learned. Most than ten years of violin and tennis is a lot to just forget about. I need to make sure that some way or another, I keep up these interests.
I feel that over the past year or so, I have discovered a lot about myself. I have a good grasp on how I am as a person and my personality traits. There’s a lot that I want to change, but most of it can’t be completely changed. I just have to make the best of it and try to mask the bad traits among more preferable ones. I have been stuck in a predicament about why I just can’t be as confident about myself as I should be. Or why I can’t express myself to other people as well as I do internally. Or why I just can’t seem to find anywhere where I really fit in. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. I’ve learned a lot about myself, but there’s so much more for me to discover. Hopefully, by the end of this next decade, I can rectify some of these issues. Or else I might be stuck in this rut for the rest of my life. That doesn’t seem fun.
So where will I be the next time a decade ends? I’m excited to find out.
