July 1st, 2025

It's July 1st, that means half the year has passed. That means we're nearing the end of the first quarter of the 21st century.

In the year 2000, we didn't have the Euro yet! And I also was a clueless teenager, a measly 14 years old. This was peak puberty insecurity. So glad that is over!

In one way, I'd rather go back to the year 200, though. No smartphones, no social media. I think the year 2000 is the year we got ADSL at home. MSN-peak was about to begin. Good times (with nostalgia glasses firmly on, let's be fair).

So much has changed in the last 25 years. I feel old because I am going to say that the world is so much worse these days. With the benefit of hindsight, I'd like to point at an obvious starting point for this decline: 9/11 2001. I think I was at school when it happened, in my history class. We watched live as the second plane struck the tower. I don't think I grasped the significance of this attack at all, it was half a world away, for one. And as a 15-year-old kid, I was still quite dumb.

As a 90-ies kid, I firmly believed that humanity was in an upward trajectory. I've held on to this belief for way too long, until after my university degree, I think. In the end, it was the pandemic that swept away my last belief in that we would be alright, as humanity.

I'm not depressed; the thought that the world is fucked is a neutral one for me. I'd rather face reality than lie to myself.

Anyway, my mission for local goodness is going well. I've joined the board of my orchestra, and doing good locally is a limit I'm at peace with. Being at peace with my limitations is my mission as a whole. Giving less fucks for things I cannot influence, and what random people think of me. I am at peace with my values, and I stand behind them.

It is 2025, and I am a Luddite.

This text came directly from my Hobonichi Cousin (which I use as a diary). It is written with a Sailor Pro Gear Smoothie Series (Passion Fruit), MF nib. Ink: Akkerman Simplisties Violet (hard to tell the colour, it's dark purple).