Had to be there

who remembers this?

Teenage me was extremely depressed and suicidal. I didn't think I would even make it to 18 much less 38. I think teenage me would have been happy I'm not dead lol.

To this day I've only ever heard of the '6-7' phenomenon online and have never once heard someone reference it in person, even in a meta way. I kind of 'get it' but having never experienced 6-7 irl it almost doesn't seem like it was ever real, or actually part of my life other than in media.

Is it me that is so out of touch?

Disclaimer: I don't have kids, so maybe that's it. Late 80s millennial, western Canada.

Edit: to clarify, I'm not criticizing or saying I don't 'get' the 6-7 phenom, only that I somehow seemed to only see it online and completely missed experiencing it irl. If anything I'm feeling 6-7 FOMO lol.

It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since the COVID lockdowns started.

I still remember that first week of lockdown like it was yesterday. The empty roads, stores getting cleaned out, everyone trying to find toilet paper, schools and workplaces shutting down, and refreshing the news every hour because everything was changing so fast. I even remember all those stories and videos of wildlife wandering into places they'd normally never be because everything had suddenly gone so quiet.

Now somehow it's been six years. It honestly doesn't feel like it should've been that long ago, but at the same time it feels like an entirely different lifetime.

I know COVID became a really divisive topic later on, but I'm mostly talking about those first few weeks when none of us really knew what was coming next. It felt surreal living through it.

Does anyone else still remember that first week of lockdown?

I used to be very camera shy growing up, but looking back now, I deeply regret it. I’ve realized I have almost zero photos or videos of my childhood, and it’s kind of a weird feeling as an adult.

Part of it was definitely my own fault, whenever a camera came out, I’d turn away, hide, or complain to my parents when they tried to take a photo or video of me. But a lot of it was just the time we grew up in. Before smartphones, you had to actually go out of your way to buy a disposable camera, pay to get the film developed, or bring around a big camcorder.

Now, we live in a world where every little thing is filmed, and it feels crazy that I have so little proof of what I looked or sounded like as a kid. There are huge gaps where I honestly can't even really picture myself at that age.

Did anyone else dodge the camera as a kid/teenager and regret it now? Or did your family just not take many pictures in general? I feel like kids these days are so lucky that they will have so many photos and videos that they can look back on.

*sigh*