Where were you 12 years ago today?

On November 18, 1996, I was ten years old.

It was a Monday, and I was in fifth grade at a private academy.

I was writing my morning assignment in the Writer’s Journal workbook and seeing if my writing humor could possibly outdo Mike R., the most excellent comedic writer in my fifth grade class.

I was wearing my school uniform and still excited that I had just moved up to wearing the big girl’s uniform—a skirt and a sweater rather than a jumper. (Grades 1–4 wore the jumper, and grades 5–8 wore the skirts.)

I had just started Nairing my legs (my mom would not yet allow me to use a razor), and I had no boobs whatsoever (not much has changed in the boob arena).

I had not yet kissed a boy and spent a good portion of my days wondering if I was going to be a lesbian because girls were totally cuter than boys and I couldn’t imagine wanting to kiss one of the gross boys in my class.

I was raising two children, taking care of a disabled husband, working three part time jobs and going to college full time looking forward to graduation in the spring.
It was hard times for my family, but we came through them stronger for it.

I was in my Sophomore year of college in Baltimore, MD. I am not sure of exactly what I was doing, but it is likely that I would be sitting in a history class.

(by the way, bythebay, I had thought you were a male poster up until this thread!)

I was just home from a 6 month deployment with the Marines, and meeting my 2 month old son for the first time.

I was 30 years old, recently divorced, raising my son who was 5 at the time. I had chosen to keep him out of Kindergarten because it would have also meant changing Day Care which would have been too much so soon after his dad and I split.

I was commuting 1 hour + to an inner city hospital, where I worked full time. I had been there almost 2 years, during which I had learned so much professionally and personally.

I was living at a place called the “Rat House” and had just started working at a movie theater a few weeks earlier.

And rat house was an accurate name, seriously, we had critters that didn’t care that we were in the room. They would just walk around.

I have a native American store in NYC and work 13 days every two weeks. No holidays, no vacations, no pay checks… But loved every minute of it.

I was in Rockwall, TX working at the best job in the world, surrounded by friends & family & just living my life.

I was home with my daughter (2), probably cleaning up breakfast dishes. Shortly after we would start getting ready to go to the YMCA, so I could workout and she could attend an art class.

I was twelve years old and in the seventh grade. Since girlofscience kindly supplied the fact that it was a Monday, I suspect I was in school.

@bythebay—Happy birthday to your kid! :D

…dork here….yes, happy birthday to your child…and congratulations to you! It’s such an amazing moment – you never forget it! :)

I was 13, as I was a rebel kid my parents transferred me from the super nice private high school to the public hs in which I had like 50 classmates instead of 9 the year after…
I was in hs, first year :)
As I was enrolled in a school I didn’t like, in a city a didn’t like with people I didn’t like I gave my parents a hard time, 18 days before I attended my first big concert, Bon Jovi and it was awesome, I used to skip school, a lot, was kind of popular with girls and we used to live in an apartment with an amazing view of the city.
I had religion classes on Monday and they used to force me to attend the mass, and wore a tie to go to classes and had soccer practices from 13:00 to 15:00 then I used to watch x-men during lunch and I used to sit in the terrace to do homework and used to make out with my neighbor (she was super cute)…
That was my Monday 12 years ago

I was in my freshman year of high school at an all girls Catholic school.

Don’t know exactly what transpired on this day, but I know that I was 14 and probably angst ridden.

I was 25. My now wife and I had been together 2 1/2 years, and I had been at my first permanent job for 1 1/2 years. We were in the process of looking for a house (which we found…the house we live in now about 4 or 5 days later). This was a Monday, and my parents were coming down to visit (and look at houses with us), and we were all flying out to Las Vegas the following Sunday (6 days later). Very likely I was at work, looking forward to the vacation, and setting up appointments with our real estate agent. I also think we may have gone to a big concert within a couple days of that as well, one of those big shows put on by a radio station for the Holidays…seems like it might have been Hole, Big Audio, Del Amitri, Dada and a couple other bands. As I recall it was quite an eventful time in my life.

I was starting my Freshman year at East Tennessee State University thinking that I would be a C+ programmer…boy, i’m glad that didn’t come to pass.

@dalepetrie: Isn’t the phrase “my first permanent job” kind of an oxymoron? If it was really a permanent job, you’d only have one of them, ever, right?

I have such a hard time reconciling this word “permanent” in the context of homes and jobs. I’m always asked for my “permanent” address, and I’m like, I don’t have one! I’m only 22; I sure hope I’m not gonna be living in my humble 2-bedroom apartment in the South permanently.

GOS, good point about that word…I’d never thought of it that way before.

Freshly bankrupt and in my third week of working for someone other than myself for the first time since I was 21. 12 years. Huh. Good things sure come disguised in weird packages.

I was a senior in high school feeling a lot of self-imposed pressure to keep straight A’s. I was probably about to go to a tennis match in the afternoon where I would definitely lose. I think I was also concerned John Schuster would never love me. He didn’t. But it all turned out just fine. Even though high school was mostly fun for me, I do sometimes wish that I could go back there and tell my 17 year old self, “relax.”

permanent – to indicate as opposed to the “temp” work I had previous to that. I guess I could say “non-contract” or “salaried”?

On sabbatical and recovering from a bad case of pneumonia—thinking that I should get extra time off, because being flat on one’s back for a couple of months is no way to spend a sabbatical. I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, which sounds stupid and selfish now that I no longer get sabbaticals at all; what about paid time off isn’t good?

I was ten years old. Probably reading a book or digging in my yard for fossils. Every now and then I would start, and then quickly realize I could see tombstones next door and stopped. Never live so close to a cemetery you share a common fence.

Haha asmonet! I love your posts.

I was two. I wasn’t doing much.

Working at an insurance office as a manager, raising two teenage boys. Luckily, their father was and still is with me. (And the question I posted today was about getting the news that I will be a grandmother for the first time in June!)

I was twelve years old probably jamming to mariah carey or boyz II men

Enjoying being 21, having just turned it a month and a bit earlier, while on a class trip to Tunisia with my Business School class – that’s as specific as I can recall.

I was living in Gdansk, Poland, teaching English at the British Council and probably being homesick for Thanksgiving, and wishing I could make some turkey with all the trimmings…that may have been the year my husband actually found a real turkey (hard to do in northern Poland) and let it loose on the balcony…

I was eight and in the second grade. I went to a Catholic school. I hated my teacher but the principal was cool. I was most likely doing something I shouldn’t have been doing like talking in class and I probably had a crush on some boy.

Thank you so much for sharing your memories today, it’s been so much fun reading them. Thanks also for the birthday wishes for my daughter—she had a fantastic birthday…oh to be twelve again!

I was 14 snd skating the ramps in my neighbors driveway and being an all around juvenile delinquent.

I was 24 and running around somewhere in Santa Barbara….Man, I miss that place! GOOD TIMES!!

I was 21, in college, married to my hubby, had a three-year-old daughter, and was seven months pregnant with my first son. I had probably seen my girl off to preschool, dropped the hubster off at work, then attended classes. I probably returned home around 1:00, after getting the girl, then retrieved the hubberino around 4:00 and just chilled for the evening. Nothing very exciting, but fun to look back on, considering the girl is now 15 and asking if Flutherites have ever kicked someone’s ass. Nice.

completely unaware that my daughter was about to conceive our first grandchild.

I was in our house being happy that we had switched from wood to propane heat.

I was 4. I guess I would have been at school…...

School, maybe, I was 12.5 years old

I was having a cup of cafe Mocha
In Venise
Watching the Dow soar

Well I am reading this on December 13th and I was in the army then. I didn’t like it at all. November 18th was just a couple of days before my graduation ceremony at the university, and I think I was on holidays in Prague.

I was only three, hmmm I would have to say I was probably playing with my Barbies and making their dollhouses perfect, which would later turn into my OCD with being neat and tidy… lol im a neatfreak. I take after my mum.

I was busy being an AWESOME 7 year old tomboy.

I was only three years old. I used to stay out in the desert with my uncle quite often. I was probably feeding ducks on the Colorado River.

I was only one sooo crying and whining