I entered the world in January 2008, so it was a pretty big year for me. Hard to believe it’s been 18 years already.
In my late twenties, working the same job at the same Rite Aid store since 2003. I hated that job at that point; the latest person to get put in store manager position was an awful boss. I was taking classes at community college just hopping around trying to figure out what the hell I could do to move on to some other employment.
I ultimately did not quit that job until about six years later.
what’d you end up doing next?
I graduated high school in '08. It was also around the time I got my first cell phone. It was also maybe a year or two after I lost my faith in Mormonism. I was depressed as fuck and it would be another decade or so before I came out as gay.
I was struggling in college. Substitute teaching part time, and playing a whole lot of dungeons and dragons.
I was also realizing that I was not a man.
I was halfway through college. My degree is in Theatre so I was mostly studying theatre or hanging out with theatre nerds.
Watching the Finale of the European championship Spain Vs. Germany.
I was a junior in highschool eating lunch in the art classroom alone
I have no idea because I was 1 year old
Shitty year, honestly. Was technically the beginning of the end to the current climate. Pre 9/11 was the last good era.
I was 5 years married, 12 years out of high school. I was still young and stupid and didn’t understand how the world worked yet. But for the most part life was good at least better than now. Future felt hopeful and promosing.
Juuuust out of college, perfectly in time for the housing bubble to burst and all the jobs evaporate.
College. Having fun with friends. Economy was crashing. Jobs, if you could find one, were trash. Democracy was still safe though. The dumbest members of society weren’t dictating our future.
So just kind of a mix of fun and stressful, with less existential dread.
I remember being very confident and optimistic. I had just started college, and nerd shit had just become the dominant force in our culture.
People were joining the internet and connecting via Facebook which I thought would lead to world peace.
Bush was out of office and Obama had won.
The iPhone meant I could use the internet and apps whenever I was.
Everything was becoming higher quality. The fast food restaurants were all remodeled to look like actual buildings. TVs in waiting rooms became all flatscreen, something I associated with the very wealthy.
Every brand was trying to copy apple so everything became a lot more white and clean. Simplified.
I had discovered reddit which felt like cheat codes for knowledge, especially since I was the only person I knew in real life who knew it existed.
That first time seeing iron man. Def right on nerd culture becoming popular.
Ding ding, except Android instead of iOS and I was just in Highschool
I was in elementary school, parents took me to Ron Paul rally which was pretty cringe. Reading Warriors books, watching Star Wars the Clone Wars, mascot for older sisters robotics team.
Feel bad for the kids today, at least older people can remember what hope felt like.
Meanwhile my parents tells me how much they had to suffer in China and how much things have improved and constantly tells me to “be grateful” because I have more variety of food to eat and “shouldn’t be picky about food” and “complaining”
Also tells me about many people being undocumented and that I “should be grateful for being so lucky of having legal status in the US”
(I literally never said I was ungrateful lol, but its this constant guilt-trippin every time my mom think I’m “being ungrateful”)
Boomer Asian parents are materialistic. I always say that they have never gone past Maslow’s hierarchy of needs of fulfilling material security needs. They are always in survival mode and are cynical. Asian parents think fulfilling material security of their kids is enough to be considered responsible and loving parents. I can’t exactly blame them having this mindset, because post-World War 2 colonial countries haven’t had it easy as they emerged poor after independence. Many suffered from dictatorship propped up by either side during the Cold War or experienced internal strife in some ways.
Drunk, got fired for being a drunk, sold plasma to get a daily McDouble and a couple 40s. Read library books until my landlord (wife of the woman who fired me) evicted me.
What a low time to look back on. So glad I got sober.
