Where were you at the start of this decade? Where will you be as it ends?

I had just retired from the police department. 12–30-2008.

By the end of this year, i plan to be working for The Federal Government in a security position.

At the beginning of the decade I was single, working in theater, and living in Florida. Now I am married, have a child, and work at a computer in a cubicle. In the meantime I earned two degrees, worked in theater, opera, and rock and roll in three states and spent 10 weeks in Europe.

12/31/1999: I was in bed with my boyfriend… we did have the TV on because of the turn of the century and Y2K stuff.

12/31/2009: I’ll be in bed with my new boyfriend. The TV will not be on, but there will be entertainment! ;-)

I was pulling teeth and trying to hide a drug addiction and manage a young family. Now I am a stay at home, sober individual getting ready to welcome my daughter back into my life. yay!

I started in bed and will end in bed.

Been right here…but, retired in 2004! Now, do nothing! The job I’ve always wanted!

At the beginning of the decade I was a freshman in high school all that was on my mind was fitting in and being accepted by others. In the past decade I have gained a great deal of knowledge, maturity and the ability to love myself for who and what I am. I have went to college and got a degree in art, started a career, bought a house and got married. I think it has been a pretty good decade.

I began it working behind a bar in York, I will end it drinking in a bar in Leeds

Started the decade a ‘stranger in a strange land’ (having moved a month earlier), working an entry level job – starting this next one a graduate with 3 recent professional qualifications doing a job I thoroughly enjoy…..I like the progress!

Younger….older.

Beginning: 4 kids, married, wealthy, employed, a high-school drop-out, two homes (a large, sprawling, pre-War apartment in Manhattan, and a restored parsonage in Columbia County with acres of gardens, a pool, a chef’s kitchen and a collection of art and antiques), two standard poodles, a collie cross, birds, fish, herptiles, a luxury automobile, a broken heart, an intractable depression.

Ending: One kid in Malibu, one in Brooklyn, two whom I am allowed to see occasionally, divorced, impecunious, unemployed, a Senior in college, a drafty old rental apartment in a small town, a real love affair with an extraordinary woman, a dog, a cat, a jalopy, a heart full of joy, a great sense of relief.

@pdworkin That’s amazing!

that’s life. we know nothing.

At the beginning of the decade? Working hard in my own business and doing very well.

Now? Working hard in my own business and fighting a difficult economy. 2010 should be better than 2009, but I still expect a tough year.

I was in a tiny, crap tenement apartment on the UES with a psycho roommate, working for a horrible boss making very little money and taking it because I was too scared to do anything else. Now I’m in a lovely flat in Brooklyn with decent people and working on my own stuff, even if I don’t have a job at the moment. I think things are looking up.

Beginning: I was singing in a pub and wishing the night would end so I could go to bed.
End: I will be chilling out with my dad and my two dogs. A big improvement from last year.

I seriously doubt I will see the end of this decade.

Beginning: My newlywed wife and I (married to each other btw), were “Red Dawn-ing” it in the Sequoias (actually in a nice cabin with friends, but most of them were potheads and appropriately paranoid about Y2K)...we were impressionable in our newly-wed state, and decided it best to “board up” the home and head for the hills…basically a smoky/foggy weekend of second-hand contact highs, and boredom.

End: In my own home in lovely suburban / high desert area of Northern L.A., with my wife, our two beautiful boys, and no paranoia. Looking forward to the future, cutting out the “fat” in our lives (literally, figuratively, financially), and focusing on what’s important: love, life experience with our family, and enjoying each other’s company sans-drugs.

I am living in the same place but I celebrated the millennium at my parents house, where I was visiting at the time.

I’m in the same house and I was a happy, healthy working nurse making a good wage. I had a boyfriend, I was slim and pretty and always busy. Now I’m not any of the above. Thank gawd for my kids and Q&A sites.

Beginning: Cameo in Spiderman and lead role in Bubba Ho-tep
Ending: Cameo in the ATHF movie and Spiderman 3,made my own movie and had a role in “A Cloudy chance of meatballs”.

The biggest difference to me is seriously just time. In 1999 I was in middle school.

2000 saw me change pretty much everything about my life and enter into the best relationship I’d ever had. 2010 looks to see me get a second chance :)

31DEC99 on a marvelous honeymoon in Barbados. 31DEC09 drinking myself to death in a cabin in Maine, hoping the end will come quickly.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land I know you are so sad, why don’t you book a flight to NZ and stay in a small country pub. Do it tomorrow. Things would change, I promise.

I am having trouble with these dreary days. I’ve only seen a peekaboo sun for days.

I love this question, p.s.
Beginning of the decade: at a giant New Year’s Party with my dancing partners, thinking about boys boys boys, a month away from losing my virginity.
End of the decade: at home with my second husband, two kids, 3 cats, 2 dogs, mom, aunt and grandma, thinking about work, yoga, tango, the usual.
Life took me from high school to college at NYU to NYU in London to grad school at NYU to NYU in South Africa…from an engagement to a marriage to affairs to divorce to second marriage…from a manipulative haughty girl to a person that cares more for activism and intelligence than my younger self did for make-up and mini-skirts..from a skinny, clear body to one full of piercings, tattoos and labor scars…from having my grandparents, brother, father, multiple close friends in my life to not…

I will always say I have had an amazing life. and I have. Here’s to a hundred years more!

last year my heart was hopeful
now my heart and skin and muscles and tendons
are ripping me into shreds
but I hope I’m still hopeful.. somehow
for the the next lot of days

The only difference is in the number of years I celebrate at my birthday. I was 56 then and 66 now. I live in the same house, with the same husband. I still have much the same family members, except instead of a teen son at home, he is now in his own house, married with two sons of his own. My first three grandsons are all adults now.

I still stay up until 3 am, sleep until noon, do housework and hobbies all day, and every day is just like the next. I still wake up happy every day, and go to bed happy every night.