mumblesomething years ago
The illustrious ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ladymondegreen has given me a meme; the premise is "what were you like at a specific age?" and the number she gave me was twenty. My answer is supposed to address relationship, where I was living, what I was doing for work and school, what I feared, and my best memory.
Follow me behind the cut-tag:
I turned twenty in the summer of 1995. To be specific, I turned twenty the day of my older brother's wedding. (They officially asked my permission to get married on my birthday before they set the date, and they gave me a cake and a happy birthday singalong during the reception.)
About a week after the wedding, we had a house fire. Whee? Thankfully, no serious injuries, but the damage was extensive.
So! Where I was living: with my parents and younger sister -- but for the first couple months of that year, mostly in the homes of friends and neighbors while we looked for a new house. We stayed in the same neighborhood, Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, NY, and I'm still living there now. (It was mostly the overwhelming support and help we got from neighbors after the fire that made my parents decide in favor of staying there; they'd been considering moving away so as to be closer to my mother's job. But really, after that ... where were we ever going to find a better community to belong to?)
I'd been living in New York for about five years by that time, and had already thoroughly fallen in love with the city. I was really glad we decided not to move away.
Relationships: I didn't have one, at least not in the sense of dating. I believe that may have been the year that I sort-of tried dating one of the guys I met in college; it didn't really go anywhere. I had an excellent circle of friends, though, many of whom I'm still friends with to this day.
What I was doing for school/work: I think that was the year I was working Sundays and some evenings as a fundraising caller for the UJA. Not fun at all. I also did my third year at Barnard College, which would turn out to be my last; I finished my English degree considerably later at the considerably cheaper Queens College.
What I feared: Well, I had an irrational smell-of-smoke panic reaction for most of that year and a handful of years after....
My best memory: Man, that one's a lot tougher -- not so much because I don't have good memories from that period of my life as because I have trouble remembering what happened which year. I might have to go with my brother's wedding, which was really pretty excellent all around.
However ... that might have been the year I first discovered the phenomenon of online fandom, specifically by way of the online fandom for Disney's Gargoyles, at castle.net and then at Station 8. That's more of a series of memories than a single memory, but still ... good times, friends. Good times.
If any of you would like to pick up this meme, ask me for a number and I will give you one! (If I don't already know your age, I may have to ask for at least a ballpark.)
ladymondegreen has given me a meme; the premise is "what were you like at a specific age?" and the number she gave me was twenty. My answer is supposed to address relationship, where I was living, what I was doing for work and school, what I feared, and my best memory.Follow me behind the cut-tag:
I turned twenty in the summer of 1995. To be specific, I turned twenty the day of my older brother's wedding. (They officially asked my permission to get married on my birthday before they set the date, and they gave me a cake and a happy birthday singalong during the reception.)
About a week after the wedding, we had a house fire. Whee? Thankfully, no serious injuries, but the damage was extensive.
So! Where I was living: with my parents and younger sister -- but for the first couple months of that year, mostly in the homes of friends and neighbors while we looked for a new house. We stayed in the same neighborhood, Kew Gardens Hills in Queens, NY, and I'm still living there now. (It was mostly the overwhelming support and help we got from neighbors after the fire that made my parents decide in favor of staying there; they'd been considering moving away so as to be closer to my mother's job. But really, after that ... where were we ever going to find a better community to belong to?)
I'd been living in New York for about five years by that time, and had already thoroughly fallen in love with the city. I was really glad we decided not to move away.
Relationships: I didn't have one, at least not in the sense of dating. I believe that may have been the year that I sort-of tried dating one of the guys I met in college; it didn't really go anywhere. I had an excellent circle of friends, though, many of whom I'm still friends with to this day.
What I was doing for school/work: I think that was the year I was working Sundays and some evenings as a fundraising caller for the UJA. Not fun at all. I also did my third year at Barnard College, which would turn out to be my last; I finished my English degree considerably later at the considerably cheaper Queens College.
What I feared: Well, I had an irrational smell-of-smoke panic reaction for most of that year and a handful of years after....
My best memory: Man, that one's a lot tougher -- not so much because I don't have good memories from that period of my life as because I have trouble remembering what happened which year. I might have to go with my brother's wedding, which was really pretty excellent all around.
However ... that might have been the year I first discovered the phenomenon of online fandom, specifically by way of the online fandom for Disney's Gargoyles, at castle.net and then at Station 8. That's more of a series of memories than a single memory, but still ... good times, friends. Good times.
If any of you would like to pick up this meme, ask me for a number and I will give you one! (If I don't already know your age, I may have to ask for at least a ballpark.)