I honestly don’t know how official decades work, but tonight is the last night of a year beginning with “200-“, so we will proceed thusly. This decade has had its ups and downs, but I was able to grow from an awkward 12 year old to a slightly less awkward 22 year old. Like my “Year in Review” entries, I will make a brief rundown of each year then rank them from worst to best at the end. For more detailed looks at 2004-2009, click on the year.
2000: I consider it the birth of my “Modern Era”. I had my first intense crush, really established my niche group of friends, and began to move towards becoming who I wanted to be. Going back to Stone really helped that. For the first time in my life up to that point, I was in shape and it gave me confidence both socially and on the basketball court.
2001: The first up-and-down year. This would become a recurring theme of the decade. The first half of the year was great. I concluded my career at SCCA, went to camp for the first time, and had many good times at many 8th Grade graduation parties. Starting high school was probably more difficult for me than most. I went to a new school knowing no one, and it took me a very long time to figure out where I fit in. My apprehension towards high school was at points mistaken for snobbery and standoffishness and I was the target of some very rude behavior. Back then I unfortunately lacked the ability to stand up for myself, but all things are lessons learned.
2002: This year I think I spent a greater percentage of time trying to “find myself” than any other year of the decade. I was knee deep in involvement at the youth group at PBC, decided to start being myself more at school, and tried maintaining the friendships that I had. After hearing that a girl who I wanted to date found me “boring”, I devoted a large portion of my time trying to prove her wrong. I tried gimmick after gimmick, and it culminated in the creation of my former website “Inside the Mind of Jakob Duehr”, a site that became more popular than it ever should have. I met a lot of people this year, but the most notable were Murdock and Jessica.
2003: Socially, the year everything finally came together. Though the first two months of the year was spent with a feud at Stone and the last four months were spent attempting damage control at TPHS for a situation that was only partially my fault, the year was great. Perhaps the best decision I made all year was to leave PBC, where except for a few exceptions (mainly Pastor Scott… he was always great) I was underappreciated and felt unwanted. I made the choice to return to Stone’s youth group. It was that decision that brought me closer to my closest friends and set the groundwork for that summer, the greatest summer of my life. My friends and I spent practically every day together doing something fun, and our camp experience that year was filled with the most hilarity of any single week in my life.
2004: Honestly, this year felt like each day was even better than the one before. Though I still spent the first two months of the year diffusing that situation at school, things just kept getting better. Even my mistakes and missteps led to positives. At school, for a short time I felt like I was on top of the world. I had my greatest experience at camp ever, and going to Convention that year is still one of the greatest memories of my life. I look back on that year with unbelievably fond memories.
2005: The year the wheels fell off. After a promising beginning to the year, things fell apart. Nothing seemed to go right at all. I narrowly missed out on a full scholarship at one school, was cheated out of one at another, and had to say goodbye to how life was with my friends. I fell out of favor with some people at school and fell just short of winning my fantasy football championship. Even camp was a less than amazing experience. As everything around me was changing, I had to be strong and deal with some very intense personal issues. Looking for a job that summer was misery, and when I finally did get the job it was miserable. I would get three hours of sleep on school nights. Sometimes I wonder how I made it through the year.
2006: Another up and down year. I had to take the somewhat good with the really bad. My Seahawks fell short in an extremely questionably officiated Super Bowl, I was marginally betrayed (for the first of many times) by someone I thought cared about me, and most importantly I lost a great friend to a car accident. I gained thirty pounds in a month. I even spent my Christmas vomiting. However, it was not a lost year. I had some of my greatest professors in college, had some of my best work experiences, really got attuned to my thoughts and emotions, and became friends with Stacie.
2007: This, for all intents and purposes, was actually a good year (in fact the only good year I had in the second half of the decade), but I have this lingering feeling that it could have actually been great. I made my first attempt to lose weight and failed. I had a good time taking more responsibility as a youth leader, but I think I could’ve done more. I squandered some opportunities due to being me, and I stressed myself out more than I needed to. Even with that, the year was good. I had more enjoyable classes, moved to Orland, and went to my first WWE PPV event.
2008: It was a challenging year but an extremely productive one. I was able to transform some of my failures into successes. I traded a failed romantic pursuit and an out of shape body for a sixty pound weight loss. It didn’t help at all with the pursuit, but it gave me my body back as well as confidence to attack other goals. I took the bouncing around from school to school for my student teaching and made it a very positive experience at Richards that I will never forget. I accomplished my goal of completing my Bachelor’s degree early. I admit I made mistakes throughout the year that left me weary by its end, but from failure was born success, and there became a greater balance between my confidence and ability.
2009: An extremely challenging year. At many points it felt like I was dealing with 2005: the sequel. Most things did not go as I planned. Some did, but in the past it would’ve left a bitter taste in my mouth. I choose not to let it consume me. I’d like to think it was a rebuilding year of sorts and that everything will come together in 2010. I met some great people, and I finally eliminated a fear of failure. Nothing is as bad the second time around. I realized if I can deal with something once, then I can deal with it again.
All in all, I am pleased with how this decade has turned out. I would be lying if I told you that the twelve year old Jakob would have imagined the 22 year old Jakob to be exactly as I am, but perfect foresight is a luxury which few are granted. I made great strides in becoming who I wanted to become as opposed to what I thought everyone wanted me to be. That said, here are my year rankings. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
10. 2005
9. 2009
8. 2001
7. 2008
6. 2006
5. 2002
4. 2007
3. 2000
2. 2003
1. 2004
No comments:
Post a Comment