When this year began, there were people in Florida digging through ballots upon ballots searching for chads they could count.Near
end of this year, a firefighter, police officer or just some guy named Chad stood up to be counted on that September day.
It was a year where we started out feeling so safe, secure and able to do anything we wanted. Then came fears of opening envelopes, getting on planes or shopping in malls. We realized so much of what we have, we take for granted.
It was a year when most important thing to television viewers was to either watch Friends and record Survivor, or watch Survivor and record friends on Thursday nights. Funny how that is furthest thing from anyone's mind today.
It was a year where lines at Red Cross to donate blood were longer than lines at DMV, Post Office, License Bureau, fast food drive-throughs, express checkouts, toll booths and banks before Y2K – combined.
It was a year when World Series was more than just a game. It didn't really matter to most of us who won, as long as games were played. Sentiment was with Yankees and city of New York. But our underdog spirit for a young team in league like Arizona Diamondbacks was just as strong.
It was a year when hot news story of year was US Congressman Gary Condit and his relationship with a Washington intern. So many of us were hoping that part of story would just go away. Guess we need to be more careful what we wish for.
On a more individual level…
It was a year when perhaps we lost someone near and dear to us whom we've known all our lives. Maybe we didn't get chance to see them as often as we may have liked over years, but we are glad to have known them. Likewise, maybe someone we never really cared for over years left us, just as we were starting to understand them and ourselves.
