BlOGANUARY 21, 2022: If you could, what year would you time travel to and why?

For today’s daily prompt, our writing challenge for Bloganuary, I’d like to take you back the year 2,000.

There are a lot of great years in my life I’d love to travel back to. The 80s and 90s were absolute golden years for me, it was a fun time to grow up, but the year of 2,000 was special in its own way.

The very start of the new millennium offered a uniqueness that eclipses other memories and circumstances.

So what will the year 2,000 be like?

We asked ourselves this a lot. It was met with high anticipation.

I remember in the first grade, our teacher had us make posters of what we thought the future would hold. My drawings showed robots that replaced the school playground aids. I made them look similar to The Jetsons, Rosie the robot maid of course, a whistle in her mouth. Teachers passed out pencils that had “2,000” embossed on the side. The first “0” filled in with black ink, the second just a squiggle, and the third without any ink. It was the date projected to become the year the world would be smoke free. Free of tobacco cigarettes.

The year 2,000 New Year’s countdown?

The crazy thrill of Y2K.

Oh my goodness. This was when the world was going to end.

A software problem and all the clocks were supposedly going to glitch into this inability to compute for the calendar year and cause the apocalypse. Some said the bug was fixed and everything would be okay. Most of us skeptical and unsure, either way we thought it’d be sort of both scary and cool. As the countdowns began around the world. “Three… two… one” followed by a moment of silence and the electricity remained on. “Well we’re still here” we said “Happy New Year!”

A year of fun, joy, and peace?

2,000 was a year of personal transition for me. From high school to college. A summer blast with friends, lots of goodbyes traded with so many more hellos.

The speed bumps of life seemed to be less distracting then. Hardly anyone had a cell phone. Events felt more collective, a more shared experience, and attention less divided. Little things were meaningful and overall less to keep track of.

A more simple way of life as a whole and so much to be excited about.

The movie Gladiator was a bit hit. Heinz made a green ketchup.

I got my first laptop. A Dell. My brother and I spent hours beating Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six that summer. I remember being so thrilled. The CD disk in the drive, spinning and spinning, loading, on the verge of overheating as the cooling fans got louder. Completion of the game though was met with a little bit of disappointment. Hours of missions, then the final triumph, followed not by a “Congratulations!” or promo of replayed victory scenes. Nope, just a roll of credits. I felt so robbed. “That’s it? I guess that was the last level? Oh well, was still pretty cool I guess and was fun while it lasted.”

The rest of the time spent outside playing ultimate frisbee and working weekend shifts at the golf course with my friends. My first serious boyfriend.

It was also the year of when my chocolate lab, the most precious little sweetie in the world was born. I helped her mama deliver her and she was the cutest puppy.

One of 13. Amazingly enough, she lived to be 13.

Time felt to move much slower then.

At the same time it’s hard to believe that was over 20 years ago. Because now it feels like time has gone by unbelievably fast.

The first people to live on the International Space Station.

Jennifer Lopez and her green draping, jungle Swamp Thing, sexy Versace dress. “Last Resort” and “Kryptonite.” I remember they played Kryptonite on repeat on the hammer ride at the state fair. It was a year I think I really took note of my own body. It was no longer the 3 of us cousins sitting together on the rides anymore, just two. We were women now, hips and all.

It was also an election year. The first time I ever voted, Bush versus Gore. I remember the recount. The controversy.

However I still felt it to be a rather peaceful time. I guess it was because it was prior to 9/11. Prior to this shift that I can only describe as unreconciled anxiety and fear that continues to this day. You can read my post My Remembrance of 9/11, Remembering Our Heroes: 20 Years After the Attacks here.

Why?

The year 2,000 is one that I will always remember. It’s quite close to my heart. So many memories are tagged in it. A year with many personal and shared iconic events. Ones I remember so incredibly vividly compared to others.

Probably the most impactful because it was this time where I felt I was in this sweet spot of being both the best of being a child and an adult.

One I’d love to travel back and experience again.

How about you, what would be your year?