It Came From the '90s

I really think I knew the girl in the blue-striped leggings.

If you've been paying attention around here then you know I'm one of those misanthropic Gen Xers, a 1990s kid raised on a combination of irony and sincerity. I spent most of the decade in school (high school and college). I listened to a lot of grunge and punk rock. I wore flannels and corduroy paints from thrift stores that were at least one and often two sizes too big because that's just what you did. I worked odd jobs in retail during those school years and went through a series of dating misfires. I spent a summer as a cater waiter that wound up being the most cinematic of my life. I met and began dating my wife during the decade.

The links in the previous paragraph prove I've written about my time in the '90s a lot around here. I wasn't intending to do that when I started the blog. It's turned out to be a fruitful period to excavate for my writing though, so I keep finding myself drawn back to it. This is likely out of some attempt to make sense of it. If I can better understand who I was then, maybe it'll help me figure out who I am now.

Consider this then the short introduction to a series I'm calling "It Came From the '90s." It's going to be a broad feature, with topics ranging from any and everything from that decade that I want to write about. One post might be thoughts on a movie from the decade, another about how I felt during a moment in time, or maybe an observation on a cultural or societal touchstone that left a giant impact on all of us back then. The narrative mode might flip between first-, second-, or third-person depending on the topic. The essays will be both micro and macro, but whether I'm writing about something that actually happened to me or something that occurred in the world in, say, 1994, you can be sure it'll all be personal.

Programming note: You might find the occasional post in this series discussing something from 1989 or 2000, for example. We all know that decades actually spill over their boundaries by a year or two on either end. The reason you might remember something from 1989 as being so '90s is because that moment in time shares more in common with what happened in what we consider the '90s than it does with what we consider the '80s. So don't be alarmed if I write about the awesomely formative kid-geek experience of seeing Batman in 1989 or about the depressingly formative young-adult experience of the 2000 presidential election. Those posts will still deal with very specifically '90s attitudes, ideas, and emotional experiences.

Comments

Writers LifeDecember 29, 2016 at 8:45 AM
Love it! Althought I am one generation older so I relate more to the 80's It's a neat way to relate to life and your blog. I'll follow that. :)
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Stacy BenedictDecember 30, 2016 at 2:13 PM
Ugh, the 2000 presidential election! Another one I want to forget.
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Words Seem Out of PlaceDecember 30, 2016 at 4:32 PM
I'm still actively trying to forget that one too. Ugh.
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