Change: Make or become different
Is there a better way to define 2011?
Ten years ago, the year was defined as one of tremendous loss, and its legacy would trail us for the rest of the decade with two wars and the constant reminder that the perpetrator was still at large. However, on May 1, that era came to a close with the death of Osama Bin Laden.
2011 began with the collapse of dictatorships in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. For weeks, we watched wars being waged between police forces and young protesters. Protesters would drizzle into Spain and Greece during late spring but with less dire consequences. London, and eventually all of England, would erupt in riots during early August. All of this would lead to the occupation of everything during the last half of 2011.
A couple kisses during the London Riots
With the declaration of “We are the 99%” and the suggestion to “being a tent,” protests broke out across the nation. Whether or not they, or anyone else, knew exactly what they were protesting, they camped in every major city from September 17 through early December.
Now, for the non-political, more fun, stuff.
First, let’s discuss the Harry Potter of it all. When I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, not only did I cry through the entire movie, I cried all the way home from the theater. With the end of Harry Potter, popular cultural experienced a significant change. There have only been two years since 1997 that have been Harry-free. But now, as the posters proclaimed, “It all ends.” As a die-hard Potterhead, I have blogged multiple times about the effect the past, and last, year of Potter has had on me. In a nutshell, I don’t really know how I’ve made it through the last few months knowing there would be no new Potter, and I think my childhood may have ended on July 15.
At the London premiere of the film, JK Rowling gave an emotional “Thank You” speech ending in the words, “The stories we love best do live with us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”
For the crazies, those are some pretty special words and some of the most memorable I heard in 2011.
On Oct. 5, I saw the trending tweet was RIP Steve Jobs. I thought it was someone’s idea of a sick joke–a rumor that we would all be laughing about today as one of the craziest events of 2011. I mean, what in the world were we supposed to do without Steve Jobs around? At that point, the only Apple product I owned was my iPod classic, but I couldn’t go more than a day without it. Today, I have had a MacBook Air for less than a week–I have absolutely no idea how life ever went on before.
I took Steve Jobs’ example for granted before Oct. 5. He stressed the details and made his fortune by making things beautiful. He didn’t worry about things like getting fired from his own company or getting cancer and the possibility of death. To him, every failure and ending were just chances to make something better.
While I can’t imagine the day, there was a day before I had my iPod and my MacBook. There was a day when I didn’t even wish for iPods and MacBooks – a day when I didn’t know about a man named Steve Jobs. Back then, he was a part of a team that created a space cadet named Buzz Lightyear that urged me to travel to “Infinity and Beyond.”
I woke up at 2 a.m. for these two. Named muffins after these two. These two, along with Harry Potter and the gang, make me want to drop out of school and just move to England. It was a live-action, 100 percent real, Disney Princess movie being played on CNN. No conspiracies, no deaths, no drama. Pure happiness.
Let’s all come clean. I don’t care what kind of big no-marriage included plans you have for yourself, if you are a feminist, if you never want to leave the United States or maybe you are already married–you saw the very-single, full-head-of-ginger-haired Prince Harry standing next to his older brother at the alter and immediately put yourself in a tiara and Alexander McQueen dress (with six-foot train) walking down the aisle of Westminster Abbey. Admit it. Kate made us all believe in fairy tales.
Ok…I said the politics were at the beginning, but I left out two of my favorite political-related stories of the year.
This photo of Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta and her partner Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell says it all–the military’s long-standing policy Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed this year.
Another victory for the LGBT community came when New York state passed a law legalizing same-sex marriages in New York. The passage of this law doubled the number of Americans living in a state that allowed same-sex marriages.
The above picture is of New York Republican Senator Roy McDonald. During the weeks leading up the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, McDonald obscenely proclaimed that he was just going to do the right thing as he cast his vote in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.
“I’m tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I’m trying to do the right thing, and that’s where I’m going with this,” said McDonald.
Imagine how much would get done if everyone thought like that…
I’m sure there are a million more things that I could say about 2011, but the ones mentioned tonight are the ones that popped into my head first, so I guess they must be the most important ones – at least to me. Happy New Years to everyone, and, who knows, this might just be the year I end up on here everyday.
