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A lot can change in five years of your life. People, family, friends, the world, you. Everything is constantly changing all around us and sometimes I think it's helpful to look back and see where I was a while back.
I'm pretty new to these forums and only ever found out about them because Amanecer kept talking about them all the time. It seemed like a good place filled with good people so I decided to stick around a lurk for a little while, it was only recently that I started to actually post here and there.
I thought a thread like this one would be an interesting way of letting people know a little bit about me and letting me learn a couple of things about them in return.
So... Five years ago. Five years ago I was living in Venezuela. I had two more years of high school left before I graduated and I had a great relationship with my family. My brother and I shared mutual friends, my best friend lived directly across from me and we spent most of our spare time together, being teenagers.
My lifestyle was a bit more dangerous and I recall a few times when I actually feared for my life and had to act to save it. I played in a band with my best friend, he played the drums, my brother played bass guitar and I played guitar (I still do). My thoughts about the future did not contain any of the stuff I've gone through since then.
Looking back, I don't think anything went quite as I planned. My life has changed completely in the last five years. Moving to the US was quite a change and in many ways it has been both a blessing and a curse.
So how about everyone else? Where were you all 5 years ago? Physically and mentally, have any of you noticed a major change in yourselves or your lives since then?
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Five years ago, I was working in a good job where I was less than happy. Now I'm working in a good job where I am very happy.
Five years ago, my husband went into respiratory failure, and had a tracheostomy put in and was placed on a ventilator. Now, he still has a tracheostomy and is still on a ventilator, but he is also still alive and a good husband to me, a good father to our son, and a good full-time employee at his work.
Five years ago, I wasn't sure why I didn't feel well so much of the time. Now, I've been diagnosed with lupus, and I take medication to keep the disease under control, and to keep me able to continue doing the things I want to do in life.
posted
Five years ago I was living away from home for my first summer, working as a morning manager at Quizno's. Life was a lot sillier - I worried about who I would marry every waking moment - but life was a lot simpler because I hadn't addressed a lot of the huge issues that have shaped me since. Even though I was living on my own and independent, I was innocent. I think that was the summer I was discovering classic rock for the first time, and I was pretty sure I was going to be a rock star. Hee.
All in all, I'm pretty glad I've had those five years since. I like my old, jaded self a lot better.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Five years ago, I was in the middle of one of the more turbulent summers of my life. I was seventeen. It had been almost two years since I had ran away from home and lived on the streets for a week, then was picked up by the police and put in a youth centre. (I was shortly transferred to a group home, where I decided not to return to my live with my parents place, and I then transferred to a transition home.) I had just finished my last year of high school and was getting ready to plunge into the unkown world of CEGEP. It was the first summer I had held a real summer job, and almost all of the money was going to pay for my tuition.
Basically, I was at a crossroads in my life, and I coped with it by drinking to excess and taking up drugs again (I had been completely sober for one whole year.) That summer was the summer of some of my most spectacular binges. I would drink and/or smoke till I went temporarily blind and/or passed out, and awake the next morning to hear of all the outrageous things I had done while inebriated, all of which I still have no recollection of.
It was a pretty wild time, and marked the beginning of the end of one of the most unhappy, depressing times in my life. Everything has so completely changed since then. I thank God it's over.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Funny you should ask... My 5-year landmark. (Warning: Is long and rant-like, and discusses more than just how far I've come in five years...)
If you want more concrete details, five years ago I just completed my first year of college, I was working at a video store over the summer, and was beginning to question what I should do with my life. At the time the plan was to major in business, graduate with honors, get a good job to make lots of money, and go the standard route - a plan that has taken a distinctly different direction since then.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Five years ago I wasn't particularly concerned with anything important. I received my first failing in-class grade in High School (I somehow managed a 28% in English 30 - luckily I scored high enough on the pronvincial exam to still pass the corse). That taught me that its not actually 'cool' to do poorly. I didn't have a job and didn't want one. I now have a job and still don't want one. Well, atleast not the one I have. I hadn't learned that learning is fun. I think that's the most important change.
Sounds like people (including myself) have certainly come a long way in five years.
Also, what a great thread idea this is!
Posts: 367 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Five years ago I was living in another state and entering one of the most traumatic and destructive periods of my life. I felt I'd lost the only person I'd ever loved and had started sleeping with someone who made me feel like crap, just to have a reason to forget. The college I was working for was going great guns and I was getting good money, interesting work and pay rises every few months and I worked with a great bunch of people. A year later the company would go under and be bought out by the most rapacious education corporate on the planet. I was on the downward spiral to 18 months of severe depression.
I'm not the same person I was then, by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not really a 'talker' anymore - I prefer just getting in an 'doing' now. I still suffer from depression a little, mostly during winter months and I still work for the company that bought us out. But life is better than it was then in so many ways, I'm a better person and I'm moving in perhaps a better direction.
Posts: 2245 | Registered: Nov 1998
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5 years ago I was suffering chronic, pysychosomatic stomach pain, and crying myself to sleep many nights. Apparantly I was getting into constant fights, which drew to a halt when I started seriously beating other people up. Can't remember. I developed a minor eating disorder which still exists to this day, namely that I never get hungry. Never. I've gone 4 days without eating more than 1 meal a day before realizing that I was on the verge of complete, physical collapse.
Posts: 3060 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Five years ago I was in the summer between 7th and 8th grade. I had just finished making a whole bunch of new friends near the end of 7th grade and was enjoying spending time with them. I Camp CAEN, a two week computer camp at the University of Michagan, for the first time. I loved it and would return several times. I hope to be counseller there next year if I can. Life was good and I was enjoying it.
Now I've just graduated from high school and I'm off to college. Life is still good and I'm still enjoying it Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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5 years ago, I was 17., at school in West L.A., and had just gotten the new roommate who introduced me to the Church and whose father would eventually baptize me. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Five years ago, I had just married; the two of us were looking at houses in and around Urbana, and it looked like I'd be with the non-profit for which I was working for a while. Of course, then the Internet bubble burst, but....
All in all, it's been a good five years, if a bit dramatic at times.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Five years ago, I was only a year out of high school and had only recently realized that my health problems would keep me from serving a mission for my church.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Five years ago to the date I was in Massachusetts, visiting Boston University and doing some sightseeing. I remember the day because that was my first time venturing out of Wisconsin or Illinois and I was quite excited.
It was the summer between 11th and 12th grades, and I was deciding whether I wanted to be a math teacher or an engineer. I was a staunch conservative, a devout Christian, and spent all of my time working, reading, or mapping out my future. I didn't have any friends I particularly liked, and I was constantly fighting with my family. I wasn't very happy and was much too serious a person in general.
Suffice to say that I highly doubt anyone who knows me now would recognize me then.
Posts: 4292 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Five years ago I had just finished my second year of college. I taught at ACE computer camp that summer in Phoenix and Tucson. One of the teachers never showed up, so I had to learn C++ in about 48 hours. After computer camp ended, I got a job milking cows at the university's dairy. I had met my future husband at this point, but was still a year away from dating him.
Posts: 1269 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Five years ago I had been married for about four months. It was just my wife and me, and we had no appreciation for how much free time we had. My wife would get me up to go running every morning at 6. We both worked full time, and we would call each other up and say "Sweetiepie!" We had a rubber raft that we would take to lakes and float on the waves while I read Lord of the Rings out loud to her.
Five years and two kids later, life is very different, and we've been through some hard trials. But I must say we're even happier and even more in love.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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5 years ago I had just finished my 3rd year of college and my first year of bonafide depression. I had also just received my mission call to Brazil, so I was getting ready for that. I was working at Intel (and incidentally, I'm typing this from my desk at Intel right now) and grateful that I didn't have to go back to school in the fall.
I had no idea then that in 5 years I'd be gearing up for my first year of teaching as a high school choir director. Silly me.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Five years ago, I signed up for something the first time for anything on the internet. I used lowercase because I didn't know I couldn't change it later.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Five years ago I was home, back when "home" still meant something. I was preparing to go to France for my university studies. And I had no idea what was to come.
In a couple of weeks I'm going back to Romania for a short vacation. But it's not home anymore, and it hasn't been for quite a while. It's not *that* sad, it's just me growing up I guess. And I still have no idea what is to come. Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I just had finished my concours to go to my school at the same date. Two mounths after, i enter in the Bordeaux center of ENSAM. It was a funny time. I had learn so many things like Math, Physics or Mecanic... And English ! Without, i never come here, on hatrack.
Posts: 1189 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Five years ago I was just about to leave school. I was riding the crest of a wave - I'd enjoyed my last two years of school, I'd made some very good friends and I was just beginning to realise that other people did like and appreciate me. I was full of high hopes and ideals and couldn't wait to start my degree at Oxford. If I remember rightly, I was already doing background reading. I'd been at Hatrack for two years and posted far more than I do now. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew that I would work as hard as I could for my degree and then take it from there. I was really closely involved in my religious community and was working hard on religious education stuff with someone who became a mentor and close friend. I was ready for four blissful and relaxing weeks of holiday with my parents and scared about my A-level results which I knew I would collect on my return. I desperately hoped to keep in touch with one of my teachers who had been a constant source of support and who had sparked my interest in philosophy. I knew she needed a friend as badly as I did, though she would never have said so.
Five years on, I have changed in some ways, but in many ways I am the same person. Older, yes, wiser, perhaps. I went through a period of being depressed, jaded and cynical and came out the other end wiser and more compassionate. My interest in education has become my vocation. I have learned to listen and learn from others more. I have fallen in love, made some unhealthy choices, got hurt, recovered and fallen in love again. As for my teacher whose friendship I wanted so badly - she is one of my closest friends, despite the difference in age and experience.
Posts: 1550 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Five years ago I was in the Air Force stationed at Seymour Johnson AFB in NC. Now I'm a civilian currently in college to become a computer engineer. Alot of change actually.
Posts: 796 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I was still kind of reeling from my divorce the year before. I had 5 children still at home, was living in the "family home" in SE Idaho and attending Idaho State University with about a year to go to get my degree. I was living on about $6000 (taxable) income a year, plus child support and financial aid.
I'm now working as a public health professional on Maui. I have two daughters left at home. I'm better off financially and emotionally than I've ever been in my life. I feel like I still have a way to go, but I'm well on my way.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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That makes me very happy, maui babe. It really does.
Five years ago, I was...in Neverland. And I knew it. I intended to stay as long as I could. I loved it there, but I knew it could never last.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Five years ago I was about to get married. Which I thought would never happen. Like AFRobots we didn't realize how much free time we had. Now we have two little boys and are a very happy family. Although I'm ready for the two month old to start sleeping through the night. Me and my wife are both sleep deprived most days. Five years ago my company was starting to suffer from the stock market plunge, but overall still doing well. As it now stands I will find out in the next few weeks if I am going to be among those who will be laid off. We have already had one major layoff which I survived. Though the company will be fine in the long run, I am concerned for our site. Will really be glad when this current issue is past. So, to sum it up; family life started good and got better, job situation got shaky and has gotten more so.
Posts: 232 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I had just moved to Jacksonville, AL from Flagstaff, AZ. (My mother-in-law had colon cancer and we moved to be close to her.) I was about to start my 2nd year at university for BS in CompSci.
I was 26, married (a little over 2 years), and our son was 1. I missed Flagstaff (and Northern AZ) deeply. But Jacksonville was really nice (though the humidity took some getting used to.) It was so lush and the university was fun, though I had to get used to some of the accents and expressions.
Things were looking up for us. Life was good and promised to be better.
And I was at Hatrack, arguing.
It was a very good time.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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I spent the summer days of 2000 trying to pack half an English major into one semester, and the nights roaming the Salt Lake City streets in the shotgun seat of an old Jeep Wrangler.
Needless to say, best summer ever.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Five years ago I was 16, going into my junior year of high school. I don't really remember what I did that summer jobwise... that may have been the summer I worked at my friend's motel doing yardwork and at a math program called Kumon as a homework grader. I know I had to read Jane Eyre for summer HW and I really liked it. Yup.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Five years ago I have finished a year of different experiences from the three years before that. You see, in the beginning of fourth grade, I moved schools due to my being tormented socially.
So five years ago I was getting used to new friends I have met for about 7 months, I was getting over the past and today - looking back - that step seems like a small step to me, and a successful one. I barely think of my old school...
Effects were grand, and possibly you know me as the third mose arrogant person on the forum (after sexy_aaron and jebus202) due to that. Had I kept on routinly I'd have been a bitter, battered but of a Being. I think that these five years have got me out of the underdog status and made me [parts of being] a bully, wise-arse, artist, philosopher, Aikido trainee, standard teenager and probably anything you see in me.
Five years ago I was ten, though, so those years had more of an effect on me than most of you older people, I guess. I can think easily of two years ago and that effect, though...
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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In the summer of 2000 I had just finished my first year of full-time teaching and my first year of living in Virginia. My husband and I agreed it was time for him to leave a well-paying job that he hated. We had agreed to be co-leaders of our church's youth group, but it was still six months before he began to feel the call to ordained ministry.
Our lives have changed a lot since then! It seems a little odd to me that I am defining my life in terms of his changes -- but the decision to go into ministry is really a family one for us.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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July 2000...I had three month old twins. I was trying to adjust to life at home after leaving my job. I also had a 2 year old and a 7 year old. Life was crazy, hectic, challenging. I was getting very little sleep, I was in a lot of pain (my endometriosis came back not long after the twins were born) and trying to cope with everyday life, which was getting away from me.
I feel much, much better about myself and my life today. I think I've come a long, long way from the depressed mom who couldn't make it through a day without bursting into tears at some point.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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