Third Decade

Five years ago I was just starting one of my first jobs in my field, working for a small yellow pages company. I was living alone but not enjoying it very much, and I was considering getting another apartment with a friend.
Ten years ago I was working for a telephone survey company and taking a year off before starting college. I made employee of the month two months in a row because I memorized the order of keys needed to advance to the next call without having to wait for the slow computer load screens, which brought my call rate to less than a second between calls.
Fifteen years ago I was nervous about going to high school, and probably spending my nights talking to strangers on BBS Chat boards (that’s pre-internet, folks). The irony is that I’d been telling online people I was 15 for three years, just so they’d take me seriously. At 15. What was I thinking?
Twenty years ago I was spending my time at the school park playing GI Joes and Transformers in the dirt, and throwing them off playground structures with makeshift parachutes. The rest of the time was spent riding my bike all over the neighborhood, or attempting to build tree forts in the woods next to my apartments.
Twenty-five years ago I was very excited about starting Kindergarten. Earlier that year I had gotten on the bus with a neighbor girl and went right into her classroom like I belonged there. The only supplies I brought were my sister’s Happy Days lunchbox filled with Marshmellows and a Thermos™ full of water. The administrative staff thought it was all very cute and funny. My mother did not.
And Thirty years ago today, I was squeezed out of my mother and thrust upon the world for the very first time.
















