Shared Memories

These poems tell the story of my growing up in central New Jersey and coming of age in the mid 1990s to mid 2000s. For youth in the United States, it was the time of Backstreet Boys and neoliberalism, Monica Lewinski and the North American Free Trade Agreement, the beginning of e-mail and blogging and tweeting and skyping and “friend” as a verb, 9/11, the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, globalization, massive outsourcing of jobs, the global recession and Lady Gaga. Not necessarily in that order, and of course leaving out a lot, and being terribly America-centric. But my point is: anyone who was growing up during that decade, particularly in the US, shares these memories (and then some). These shared memories formed us, and I penned them from my own particular vantage point of a Jersey kid that got to go to college in Iowa and live and work in Nicaragua and New York City. Perhaps you will be able to relate to some of these memories, even though many are specific to me. From the first time we question the history we’re taught in school, to the discovery of our inner lives, to our early lessons with love and loss, faith, and difference, we millennials are on a common journey in this interconnected world. I wanted to pause and share these memories with you. Did I mention- -the clouds drifting over my eyes my fascination with my own inner skies so if I seem a bit starry-eyed I’ve been star-gazing from the inside Did I mention the thrill of leaving the atmosphere and I, an astronaut, a pioneer traversing the farthest reaches of a universe I once forgot that comes alive when I open my eyes and look up