Hello 2010!
January 13, 2010 • written by Frannie Sprouls
2009 is over and 2010 has finally begun. It’s amazing to think that we have survived through ten years of the millennium, when in 1999 the whole world was worried that all the computers would end and thus ending the world as we knew it. I remember that a friend of mine and her family had stockpiled survival food and kits just in case. Looking back now, it seems so silly.
Then in 2001, there were the attacks on the World Trade Towers in New York City on September 11, as well as the attack on the Pentagon and the plane crash in Pennsylvania. We were only in grade school, whether we were kindergarteners or fourth graders. Maybe we understood it and maybe we didn’t at first. But we will always remember.
From September 11 on, the United States has faced difficult times. First, we invaded Afghanistan and from there Iran, where we searched for weapons of mass destruction. Americans began to question the decisions of government even more with the fiasco that was Hurricane Katrina, which the country is still picking up the pieces from. There were the outbreaks of the avian flu and then H1N1 influenza (first known as swine flu).
And then there was the biggest difficulty of the decade: the recession. So many jobs were lost, homes were foreclosed, and families began struggling. This was even worse than the crash in 1929 that began the Great Depression.
Over the last ten years, we have lost many influential people: Charles Schulz (2000), Dale Earnhardt (2001), John Ritter (2003), Johnny Cash (2003), Steve Irwin (2006), Heath Ledger (2008), Bernie Mac (2008), Billie Mays (2009), Michael Jackson (2009), Patrick Swayze (2009), and many more that were near and dear to our hearts.
But the decade of the 2000s has had many good events, especially for us teenagers. Cells phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players such as the iPod became the norm in American society. DVD’s replaced the old VHS tapes. Many websites became popular due to the rising popularity of the internet: Google, Yahoo, eBay, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The 2000s were definitely the beginning of the technology age.
Trends became popular for some and not so popular for others. There was the rise of the Crocs, which many people love to hate, as well as Uggs. For boys, the fauxhawk became popular and the straighten hair became popular with girls.
Popular book series were Harry Potter, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the Twilight Saga. Movies that made it big in the box office were the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter films, Pirates of the Caribbean series, the Spiderman series, Ice Age, and many more.
Maybe the 2000s weren’t so horrible after all and maybe they were. But we can see this as a period of growth for our nation and the world. We have become stronger as individuals and as a whole. So here’s to 2010 and beyond! May the next ten years be better than the last ten!
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Wow! This is a really great article! I can’t believe all of this stuff happened in the last decade! It makes me feel so old
im hoping to get a BF this year!