Class Of 2000 Essay, Research Paper

We were born in 1981/1982. People were still getting over Vietnam and Disco

had swept the

country. Dolly Parton had a song called Jolene,

and Diana Ross had

records,

yes those big black Frisbees that were five

times the size of a CD,as

big

as her hair.

The Muppets were our heros, and Atari was the

game of choice. Pac Man

invaded our heads and our parents pockets. We had

those bouncy balls that

had the handle on the top and you could sit

on and

bounce all over the place.

The Reagan administration came around, but

all we

cared about were our mini-wheels. Snack time

in

Kindergarten was cool and the opposite sex

still

had cooties. We liked to play Candyland and

Chutes

and Ladders. Tic-tac-toe was still

fashionable to

us. Star Wars and their cheap knock-off, the

Ewoks, were imitated all over the nation, ET

made

us afraid to go into the bathroom. Girls

fought

over My Little Ponies, Barbies, and Cabbage

Patch

Kids. Boys were more into Transformers,

He-Man,

and GI Joe, not to mention their prized b-b

guns

with those little rubber pellets – yeah, they

hurt, too. Pretend was always fun too. In

second

grade we watched as the Challenger lept from

the

earth only to float back unexpectedly,

devastating

the nation, and plunging them into a state of

mourning. Cuba was the enemy, drugs were

becoming

big and Iran got on our bad side, as did

Oliver

North. TV rotted our brains with “Different

Strokes,” “Silver Spoons,” and “The Cosby Show”.

Leg warmers, bandanas, and spiked hair,

consumed

us as we listened to Boy George and his

Culture

Club, Bruce Springstein, Rolling Stones,

Madonna,

George Michael, Cyndi Lauper, and Michael

Jackson.

Pretty soon, hair stopped being spiked and

started

getting BIG. Chains, and spikes, and jelly

bracelets were the rage, and everything was

“awesome” or even “rad.” People started

getting

computers like the Apple 2E. Bubble dresses

were

cool and the youth were following the path of

rebellion. Drugs and guns were becoming more

and

more common, and we watched as the world

discovered HIV and AIDS, and an 18 year

oldboy

from Indiana died from a transfusion. We also

lived through the Bush administration. Our

generation watched the Gulf War, our own

small-scale version of Vietnam, come into our

living rooms at night with the green night

images

and the blazing dots across the screen. We

watched

older brothers and sisters go off to a war

that we

never thought we’d see, but we made up songs

about

Saddam Hussein to the tune of “Ice Ice Baby”

by

Vanilla Ice. Bill Clinton became the

President

taking Al Gore as his VP. Rolling your jeans

and

wearing GUESS and ESPRIT clothes made you

popular.

Everyone was crazy for McDonalds.

We

started dating more frequently, searching for

the

love of our life. Girls in the high schools

started getting pregnant and we started

getting

our licenses. We lived through all the crazy

fashion flashbacks, the hair, and the

environmental crisis.

We have now gotten to our senior year and we

wait

for prom and most of all

graduation day. We will pick up our caps and

gowns

and all that senior stuff that’s supposed to

help

us remember the good ‘ole days, but some of

the

things that you’ll remember most, can’t be

put on

paper. That day will finally come, and you

will

sit there with all of the friends that you

have

made over the years. You will look out at

your

family and deep down you will know that this

is a

once in a lifetime moment. It will be the

last

time in your life that all these people would

be

together in one place. Yeah there will be

reunions but there is always the chance that

one

person won’t make it there. You will look

back on

your time with these people and realize that

it

was short lived and that it didn’t seem as if

there was enough time for everything that you

wanted to accomplish. Sports, activities,

SAT,ACT,

and all that good stuff. They will call your

name,

your tassle will get turned, and you will

get a

piece of paper that says you are smart. Then

you

said good-bye maybe to your town, and the

school

and your friends. You know that you can go

back to

visit, but there will be strangers in the

halls

and it won’t be the same. It will be

different,

and you’ll be different. But it won’t be the

end.

In fact, everything is just beginning.