I haven’t written in a while and a great deal of the
reasoning behind that is due to the fact that I have been so caught up within
my own life and the stressors that lie within the realm of my personal
concerns. As many people my age, indeed many people in general, I tend to get
caught up within my own life. My greatest concerns and fears are all things that
directly impact my own life. I am a product of a ME generation. Today in my
English class, a thought was planted in my head. My professor asked her lecture
hall what her students, my peers, thought of issues facing the world today.
Issues such as sexual assault on college campuses, refugees, and racial discrimination
and inequality. In the recent attack on Paris, world affairs have been jolted
to the forefront of many minds, across the United States as well as the world.
Certainly this has been the case with my own life. There is that phrase again.
My own life. In the same English class I mentioned previously, my professor (we
are talking about literature from the 1960s this week) put a timeline of events
from 1950-1962 on the lecture slide and it made me think of all the historic
events that have taken place already during my lifetime and how that timeline
would compare to a timeline from my personal life.
My life:
1995: I was born on September 2nd
1998: My first niece was born (I’m the baby of my siblings
for those who are weirded out)
2001: My family moved from Racine, Wisconsin to my current
home in Yorkville, Wisconsin
2009: Started high school and my first nephew was born
2010: I joined my high school’s dance team and I had my
first kiss
2011: Started my first job at Culvers and received my driver’s
license
2012: Attended Badger Girls State
2013: Graduated high school, started college at Carroll
University, and turned 18
2014: Studied abroad in Wales, traveled to London, Paris,
and Rome, and transferred to UW-Madison
2015: My first time living in an apartment
The World:
1995: Oklahoma City Bombing
1996: Mad Cow disease in Britain
1997: Scientists clone sheep and Princess Diana dies in a
car crash
1998: President Clinton impeached (yes I know he wasn’t
removed)
1999: Columbine High School killing and the Euro becomes the
European currency
2000: Mapping of the human genome
2001: 9-11
2002: Blast in Bali kills hundreds
2003: invasion of Iraq
2004: Facebook is launched
2005: Hurricane Katrina and suicide bombers in London
2006: North Korea conducts first nuclear test and Saddam
Hussein is executed
2007: Artic sea ice hits record low
2008: Beijing hosts Olympic Games
2009: Obama is sworn in as first black president
2010: Haitian earthquake and BP oil spill
2011: Egyptian revolution, British royal wedding, and Osama
Bin Laden killed
2012: Rover Curiosity lands on Mars successfully
2013: US Government shut down
2014: Nigerian school girls abducted, Malaysia airplane
missing
2015: same-sex marriage legalized in US, terrorist attack in
Paris
My entire life laid out in a simple quick timeline. If I
live to be 100, I haven’t even reached the quarter mark. When compared to
events going on in the world at the same time, my life and its events seem
small and insignificant. Just a little food for thought the next time you get
wrapped up with the concerns that involve your own life. Remember the bigger
picture. Your world is shared with 7 billion other inhabitants. Your big events
are mere specks in the larger workings of humanity. It is important that we
remember that.
-T
-T
