2001 and me.

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the year 2001?

The first thing that comes to mind is "...a space odyssey," a movie which I've never seen except for the chimp scene, although I know enough to know the rest of the movie bears a pretty small resemblance to the "real" 2001. The second thing that comes to mind, not surprisingly, is September 11th. To be honest, although the events rattled me deeply and set our country into a complete tailspin, the actual physical events of 9/11 were far removed from my life, as they were from most of our lives. Like watching a movie. You know, like Kubrick. It was not until later that we all became very wrapped up in a sort of 9/11 identity, as the wars happened, as the media ran out of control. But very few of us ever came close to touching 9/11. Feeing 9/11. Breathing it.

What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that 2001 means a lot more than a very real tragedy and a very fake Hollywood movie, yet the year oscillates in between those two identities in my mind.

In 2001, I was fifteen going on sixteen. It's the iconic American age, am I right? I had my first kiss and went to summer camp and learned how to drive. Without sounding full of it, I was a pretty smart and level headed. I was prolific and had a strong sense of what I wanted out of life. None of these things describe the years that followed; somehow I got off track. I think back to 2001 often, and I wonder what exactly changed inside myself.

But I can point out a few things that changed, outside. Thanks to the abject failures of the Bush administration, we now have Obama. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, we now have Facebook. The economy started sliding and a lot of people lost their jobs all over the country, including my dad for a while. Reagan died. So did Ol Dirty Bastard. And my Grandma.




This is my proposal: to live like its 2001 again. I don't quite know what that means, yet, but this blog will document my journeys to investigate and re-live and celebrate all that existed in 2001, and all that has happened since. This blog will include interviews, essays, maybe guest essays, memoirs, photographs, relics, relics and more relics. Contact me if you would like to contribute.

Does this mean Bush is in office, again? Will I succeed in not texting? Should I go back to dial-up? AOL?!?