2020: the end of childhood
As the 2010s come to a close, we’re left to wonder, what does this mean for us? Sure, 2019 to 2020 is only a one year jump, but it also marks the start of a new decade—one that will mark the end of our childhoods.
At the start of the 2010s, we were elementary students. Our lives consisted of going to school, coming home, watching a few episodes of Phineas and Ferb, and playing outside with the neighbors. Over the ten years since then, we’ve had to take on loads of homework, tests, extracurriculars, and the burden of trying to figure out our futures.
Though some of our current stressors will be relieved in the coming decade, the future will also bring new, and probably more important, stressors. Our childhood ignorance ended at some point during the 2010s when we put away our pogo sticks so we could spend more time keeping up with social events.
SJHS student Nick Menke, 12, has a unique take on this transition. On December 31, 2019, he’ll be turning 18, so at the start of the new decade, he’ll be officially starting his adulthood.
Looking back at the beginning of the 2010s, he sees it as the time of the Wii, Hot Wheels, and SpongeBob. “That was back when I really had my mind set on being a professional sports player like every other boy,” Nick said.
When reflecting on the fads of the 2010s, like fidget spinners and hoverboards, Nick realized that the popular things that come out in the 2020s won’t hold as much of a significance to him. “I just won’t have the time between college, and school, and trying to find a job, I probably won’t have time to get all of those things,” Nick said.
Mrs. Zoey Britton, a teacher at SJHS, experienced a similar shift a decade ago. She graduated from high school in 2011, so the shift to the 2010s signified the end of her child and teen years. Mrs. Britton noticed a big change from one decade to the next.
“Once I got out of high school a lot of things shifted to more technology. Like when I got into college everything was tech-based,” Mrs. Britton said. Additionally, between the two decades, she feels that there was a change in the use of social media, which changed the dynamics in communication from face-to-face to online.
In the past ten years, we’ve witnessed the beginning of Siri, the release of Minecraft, the forming of One Direction, the Pokémon Go craze, and the invention of Smart Watches. Thirty years from now, when we look back on these years, we’ll remember the inventions, the bands, the TV shows, and the social media trends that took over our lives as children and teens.
In 2010, most of us were awkward elementary schoolers taking spelling tests, learning cursive, or impatiently waiting for recess. As the decade draws to an end, we must bid farewell to the innocent years and say hello to a whole new chapter of our lives.