10 years

Lauri

This year is my 10 year college reunion, and we've been asked to make this "updated yearbook" page about what we've been doing for the past ten years and/or what we're up to now. It's a very weird thing to think about! As far as my accomplishments of the past ten years, I've had 4 jobs, went to grad school, and racked up my pearl jam show tally to 21. And that's...pretty much it. In terms of my life now, basically all I can think of to mention is where I work! It's not that I think too many people will have much more exciting pages (though some people will), but the whole undertaking has left me feeling...dissatisfied.

If someone asked you to review your past 10 years, how would you feel?

Kevinman

Pretty much the same as you. At least you're not alone.

pandora

your age is where the dissatisfied is coming from- you have your whole life ahead of you. I guarantee you will not feel dissatisfied next time you review.
In my 10 year review at this time in my life(54) I have lived through my hayday. This is a little sad. To be now on the other side of that, but its all good.
It was an exciting 10 years filled with travel, fun, worry, heartbreak, joy, great pride and disappointment.
Your last ten years have been filled with all kinds of emotions, experiences and lessons learned. Include these in your paragraph they have the most meaning in life.

Lauri

pandora wrote:

Your last ten years have been filled with all kinds of emotions, experiences and lessons learned. Include these in your paragraph they have the most meaning in life.

Interesting suggestion...hmmm I may have to change my strategy- if I can think of these sort of things (I know I've had them, I just have a hard time thinking up that stuff). All of the example pages from last year were very straight-forward: moved here, moved there, went to grad school, got married, etc. My current design is a sort of timeline with photos, but now that you say this maybe I should change some of the things I included...

pandora

Lauri wrote:

pandora wrote:

Your last ten years have been filled with all kinds of emotions, experiences and lessons learned. Include these in your paragraph they have the most meaning in life.

Interesting suggestion...hmmm I may have to change my strategy- if I can think of these sort of things (I know I've had them, I just have a hard time thinking up that stuff). All of the example pages from last year were very straight-forward: moved here, moved there, went to grad school, got married, etc. My current design is a sort of timeline with photos, but now that you say this maybe I should change some of the things I included...

maybe so cause that is the making of who you are - good luck- you are a lucky girl with a promising life ahead

juan lester

i think 21 shows is fucking awesome!

justam

Lauri wrote:

This year is my 10 year college reunion, and we've been asked to make this "updated yearbook" page about what we've been doing for the past ten years and/or what we're up to now. It's a very weird thing to think about! As far as my accomplishments of the past ten years, I've had 4 jobs, went to grad school, and racked up my pearl jam show tally to 21. And that's...pretty much it. In terms of my life now, basically all I can think of to mention is where I work! It's not that I think too many people will have much more exciting pages (though some people will), but the whole undertaking has left me feeling...dissatisfied.

If someone asked you to review your past 10 years, how would you feel?

I think time passes and then we notice. When you come to a moment like this when you start to think about your last ten years, you have an opportunity to assess whether or not you've spent the time as you would have liked.

What are your values? Relationships? Jobs? Education? Goals? Have you lived your life in such a way that your primary goals have been accomplished?

I started looking at the areas I needed to improve a few years ago and I realized that some things just hadn't been important to me so I hadn't addressed them yet. What I was concerned with was going well...that's probably true for you as well...you're living your life the best that you can given what concerns you most.

Some people are more worried about jobs. Some people are more focused on relationships. Some people are focused on jobs and children or marriages...

Our lives reflect what we've been paying attention to. Not everyone pays attention to the same things so don't get caught up worrying that your life isn't like your buddy's life.

Lauri

juan lester wrote:

i think 21 shows is fucking awesome!

Thanks! I started in 94 . Other people seem to write about treks in Nepal and a year studying penguins in Antartica, but I've never done anything like that...so I'm putting in my Pearl Jam shows, with photos of marquee at MSG and the pick I caught in 03 .

justam wrote:

I think time passes and then we notice. When you come to a moment like this when you start to think about your last ten years, you have an opportunity to assess whether or not you've spent the time as you would have liked.

What are your values? Relationships? Jobs? Education? Goals? Have you lived your life in such a way that your primary goals have been accomplished?

I started looking at the areas I needed to improve a few years ago and I realized that some things just hadn't been important to me so I hadn't addressed them yet. What I was concerned with was going well...that's probably true for you as well...you're living your life the best that you can given what concerns you most.

Some people are more worried about jobs. Some people are more focused on relationships. Some people are focused on jobs and children or marriages...

Our lives reflect what we've been paying attention to. Not everyone pays attention to the same things so don't get caught up worrying that your life isn't like your buddy's life.

Yeah, I definitely agree that you don't tend to think about these things until you suddenly have to for some reason. It's an interesting take that people focus on what's important to them. I think that is true in some respects but there's also the issue of obligations. My jobs have never been all THAT important to me other than just making a living, and though I've spent the past 10 years working, I'm not very successful career-wise. I don't have prestige OR money. I actually don't think I even know what's important to me when you put it that way! Relationships (and children) aren't very important to me, but mostly because my life just hasn't gone that way- I never consciously made the decision not to go that way, it's just how it went. But maybe I did subconsciously make that decision because when I read the examples that were just pictures of children and suburban homes I thought, "ugh, that looks really boring." I don't really know what is important to me when I think about it. There a lot of things I would like to try if I had the money, but I don't know if they are important to me because I haven't been able to do them.

I sort of have an idea of what I would like my life to be like right now, but it isn't. I loved school, but going $80K in debt for a graduate degree that will probably never earn me more than $50K/year may not have been the best decision in the world, and it's really been holding me back for the past three years. Rather than being what I want it to be, I've always just done the things you're "supposed" to- worked hard, studied hard, exercised, always had a job, supported myself...during this exercise I've realize this probably isn't the way to go.