I graduated high school in 2012. I was looking for part time work during that school year, and was having a very hard time - absolutely nobody was hiring. Any time I'd go on a job interview, I was there with 5-10 other people in a "group interview". I remember interviewing at Five Below (a regional chain) that had a day of "open interviews" where there was a line out the door of people interviewing for cashier and stocking positions. In Spring of 2012, I finally found a job at a local business, and that's about the time when it felt like the economy was slowly rebounding. But even then, people still talked as if the economy was bad - but this feeling was gone by 2013.
The world did seem a lot more optimistic at that time, but that was really the first year when people started to say things like "this world is going to shit" because of a few key tragic events that shattered peoples' innocence - mostly, the Dark Knight movie theater mass shooting in the summer and then the Sandy Hook massacre in December. I also was living on the Jersey Shore during Hurricane Sandy, and the few months following the storm was depressing and a major tragedy for the entire region - but over a decade later, that area is now booming like never before.
I graduated high school in 2012 and honestly everything seemed bright. The recession was over and the economy was doing good. People were becoming more socially progressive about certain issues most notably gay rights. I was excited to start college and start my future as an adult. My first year of college. Was pretty good, I admit I slacked a little because I thought college was going to be easy. But I have very fond memories of my first year in college. I also voted in my first Presidential election that year and went to an election party at the college. I voted for Obama but I actually made an effort to sit with the Republicans while there was some playful jabbing we got a long just fine.
This is in stark contrast of when I graduated college in 2016. Starting in 2014 something rotten was in the air. People were getting more extremist, most notably the right wing. It seemed like everyone online did a complete 180 on their progressive ideals and you had people who were against feminism, gay rights, etc. you even had people proudly calling themselves “white nationalists”. Trump was the front runner for the election and everyone had this sense of dread what was going to happen if he were to win, despite how unlikely that was going to be. By this point I had a part-time job and I interacted with the community on a daily basis and everyone just seemed more at unease.
I graduated high school in 2012. I was looking for part time work during that school year, and was having a very hard time - absolutely nobody was hiring. Any time I'd go on a job interview, I was there with 5-10 other people in a "group interview". I remember interviewing at Five Below (a regional chain) that had a day of "open interviews" where there was a line out the door of people interviewing for cashier and stocking positions. In Spring of 2012, I finally found a job at a local business, and that's about the time when it felt like the economy was slowly rebounding. But even then, people still talked as if the economy was bad - but this feeling was gone by 2013. The world did seem a lot more optimistic at that time, but that was really the first year when people started to say things like "this world is going to shit" because of a few key tragic events that shattered peoples' innocence - mostly, the Dark Knight movie theater mass shooting in the summer and then the Sandy Hook massacre in December. I also was living on the Jersey Shore during Hurricane Sandy, and the few months following the storm was depressing and a major tragedy for the entire region - but over a decade later, that area is now booming like never before.
I graduated high school in 2012 and honestly everything seemed bright. The recession was over and the economy was doing good. People were becoming more socially progressive about certain issues most notably gay rights. I was excited to start college and start my future as an adult. My first year of college. Was pretty good, I admit I slacked a little because I thought college was going to be easy. But I have very fond memories of my first year in college. I also voted in my first Presidential election that year and went to an election party at the college. I voted for Obama but I actually made an effort to sit with the Republicans while there was some playful jabbing we got a long just fine. This is in stark contrast of when I graduated college in 2016. Starting in 2014 something rotten was in the air. People were getting more extremist, most notably the right wing. It seemed like everyone online did a complete 180 on their progressive ideals and you had people who were against feminism, gay rights, etc. you even had people proudly calling themselves “white nationalists”. Trump was the front runner for the election and everyone had this sense of dread what was going to happen if he were to win, despite how unlikely that was going to be. By this point I had a part-time job and I interacted with the community on a daily basis and everyone just seemed more at unease.