Spending most of the very last month of the decade in Vermont afforded me a great deal of time for sorely needed self reflection. I’ll continue to share some of those thoughts as I sort through all my internalized information.
However, it’s 2:30 am the night after Christmas and all I can contemplate are vague ideas of what constitutes a decade. If I start to think about all the experiences I’ve had in the past ten years, the places I’ve visited, the people I’ve met, the beginnings, the endings, all the late nights when mornings seemed so very, very far away… How can that be measured, be contained, in a single word?
Decade.
The 2000s were my 20s. It was the end of college in Alfred, New York, a life relocated to Portland, Oregon then again uprooted and moved to Richmond, Virginia only to sift and settle in Olympia, Washington. The 2000s were love found, lost, found, lost, found and lost again. The 2000s were at least eight pairs of worn out Chuck Taylors, hundreds and hundreds of albums bought and sold, shows seen, exhibits perused, and books read. The 2000s were a transition from student to teacher, from analog to digital. The 2000s were MakeOutClub, Friendster, Myspace and Facebook.
The 2000s were rolling pastures, the Pacific Ocean, Hollywood Cemetery and the Puget Sound.
The 2000s were conscious firsts.
The 2000s were…
Traveling across the country in 2001 for the first time and upon reaching our previously decided destination, the inability to understand why all my photographs looked so lonely.
