I usually don’t like getting into retrospection too much, but given the end of a decade I’m feeling a little nostalgic. I find myself being born on the turn of a decade, way back in 1980, probably gives my life a certain symmetry that others might not feel when a change of decade comes along. I’ll be turning 30 in February and it definitely feels like life is in the midst of turning to another page.

There is currently a Twitter meme going around called #10yearsago, reflecting on what people were doing a decade ago as the year 2000 approached. To tell you the truth I can barely remember. I had just finished my first semester at Durham College in their design program. I remember my friends and I had a house party at Les’ like we usually did, and as I recall nothing terribly remarkable happened. We used to have big parties with lots of craziness going on all the time, so it seemed almost ironic that kicking off a new millennium we had such a vanilla party.

As a recap to the decade I’m going to do some quick summations of what I actually remember of each year of this decade without doing any deeper research then off the top of my head.

2000
I remember that in 2000 I finally got my driver license. In my teenage years I never really could be bothered and had lots of friends who drove, so it was never a priority of mine. I spent most of my time partying and hanging with friends in the early part of the decade.

2001
I think like most people 9/11 definitely sticks out a one of the defining points of the year, and of the decade but I don’t need to get into that. I also finished my last in school semester of college.

2002
I got hired on at Thompson Printing in Paris to do my co-op semester and was subsequently hired on full time. I graduated from college with my diploma in Graphic Design. I stopped updating my long running website OasisCentral.com, which I had been running since 1997.

2003
I bought my first car, a standard 1999 Hyundai Accent in dark green. So I had to learn to drive stick. This was the year I met my future wife Corina. We met through an online dating site that was called eMode in August and have been together ever since.

2004
I started off this year off with a bang, getting in a car accident and writing off my aforementioned Accent. I t-boned an old lady who jumped a stop sign. I hit her going roughly 70km/h and luckily nobody was hurt. I walked away without a scratch, which led me to buying a silver 2001 Hyundai Accent with the insurance money. I also started this very blog way back in 2K4.

2005
The previous year my parents had given me a move out deadline, my 25th birthday. So as I turned a quarter century old I moved into my first apartment, a 1 bedroom place in Paris. I had lived on my own when I went to college, but living in residence really wasn’t the same as having my own place. This decision to strike out on my own wasn’t necessarily popular with Corina, but I felt the need to assert some independence. It lasted until July when Corina and I decided to move up one floor in my apartment building to a 2 bedroom place. I also tore the anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee while playing soccer. This resulted in surgery and an 18 month recovery before I was back playing soccer.

2006
I can’t recall too much about 2006 aside from the tail end. In December I got hired on as a web designer with Geosign. Also that same month I proposed to Corina in Simcoe, Ontario, 4 days before Christmas. So these 2 events pretty much setup the whirlwind what was my life the next year.

2007
In January I started commuting to my new job in Guelph, which resulted in Corina and I moving to Galt, as I wasn’t too fond of the 50 minutes drive from Paris. This was a big step for me, actually leaving Paris, which I had called home since 1994. We decided to get married on September 29th, so that gave us roughly 10 months to plan and execute our wedding. I worked a whirlwind 5 1/2 months at Geosign before the company went down in flames and I was let go along with half the company. I was unemployed most of the summer, then got hired on to work for Claris Law in Guelph in September. We had an outdoor wedding at Corina’s parents place in Clyde, with the reception held in a tent in the backyard. Weather was sunny and 25 degrees at the end of September. We drove to Massachusetts, then to the Baseball Hall of Fame for our honeymoon. As all this was going on our rental in Galt was being sold which necessitated us moving again, this time back to Clyde and Corina’s old basement apartment.

2008
2008 was another slow year. Basically we hosted the Beer Olympics in Clyde and saved money for a down payment on a house. In December we had our offer accepted on a house in Preston, capping a couple month search for our first home.

2009
In March we moved into our new house. Finally having a house of our own Corina and I decided to adopt our dog Chance, who is also affectionately known as “The Dude”. In June I was let go from my job with Claris. As crappy as that was it gave me the motivation to actually start my own business, SlideawayMedia. It was something I had always wanted to do, but as with most things I usually require a kick in the pants to get started.

While the last year has been tough, I’d say overall I was pretty happy with the 2000′s. I look back at the time and think back to where I figured I’d be at 30. I think the thing that excites me the most is being my own boss and being able to almost pick my own destiny. Who knows, maybe I’m a success, maybe I’ll fall on my face. Either way it is pretty invigorating. I think having a job that you can sleepwalk through everyday really does dull the senses. Working for yourself keeps you on your toes.