Page 8 - PINE CREST 2000

n t ie Y eav 2000,

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'0 7 ° tine C ass 2000

By: Paul Kowalski

Do you remember where you were when the Allies swept over Europe and deelared the end of World War II? When
Kennedy was shot? When Neil Armstrong became the first human to step onto the moon? Were you one of the 73 million
that tuned into the Beatles playing Ed Sullivan in 1964? All were brilliant times, but none belonged to us. The mere exist­
ence of such questions implies something collectively passive about my generation, and it irritates me. I feel as though we
are lagging behind our parents and grandparents in the amount of meaningful contributions to the millennium that we have
seen end. Where are our frontier expansions? Who are our own respected leaders, entertainers, and heroes? When will we

see our own version of a suffocating but
rejuvenating war that is just the stimulus
we need to awaken us from our capitalist
and materialist slumber? What do we
hope to gain from four hours of AOL
Instant Messaging and Internet chat rooms
every night, functional apathy and a
constantly declining need to think for
ourselves?
As we sit and ponder how mean­
ingful the acquired ability to boast to our
children that we lived in two different
millenniums is, and to say that we partici­
pated in the largest global fireworks
display this planet has ever seen, we look
back upon a select group of students in
our infinitesimal niche of this shrinking
planet and ask them the question that all
of us currently living will surely be asked
in our waning years, a suitable brand ot the longevity of our calendar as opposed to our own stellar achievements: where
were you on the night of December 31 st, 1999?
There were some who spent their festivities trying to convince others that the real commencement of the new
century and millennium will happen next year. (Lucky class of 2001). Others sold all their earthly possessions and relo­
cated to Jerusalem only to be disappointed when the Second Coming had in fact been delayed until the next thousand
years, while still more saw the close of 1999 as God’s “end of days”, and a new era in which Satan would have his 2000
year turn as Lord of the Universe. But the majority of us either did something completely outrageous, i.e. “once in a

Above: Paige Barrington, Jenny Lottenberg, Kate,
D’Angelo in the keys

Right: Before going out, Jared Mellin, Justin
4 Preiser, Paul Germain, Louis Friedel, and Josh
Goldenberg all agreed to wear the same pants.