That was then, this is now

When I was young, I always felt that the days passed by so slowly. I’d spend each long lazy day as if I were staring into eternity and wonder when things would be different. Summers stretched on, and school days stretched on even longer. I understood how it felt to be young forever. But that was then; this is now.

When was it that things started to speed up a little? Was it in 1994, when I graduated from high school? Was it in 1997, when I was in the thick of college and just discovering the Internet? Or was it in 1998, when I fell in love, for the first time? I’m not sure, but it happened in these years, when I was slowly, but surely headed into adulthood, into accountability.

It was also in those years when my generation, Generation X, grew up and realized that it was no longer right to plan things the Baby Boomer way: How can you honestly answer the “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” question when five years ago, you had no idea life would be this different?

Now, different is the fast-evolving world wide web; social networks: working with and working for people who live across oceans, people you are likely to never, ever meet. Now, in 2009, life is about old businesses that have folded, paving the way for new ones, taking with them their old ways of doing things.

It is about new avenues for entertainment: movies to be watched online (YouTube shifted to the widescreen format late last year), talents to be discovered in new ways (filmmakers have started offering their own films for downloads; singers are getting discovered through online videos; bloggers are getting published); stars making themselves even more popular, promoting themselves through their own websites or creating their own scandals (after all, how easy is it to upload your own sex scandal video?).

Recently, I was talking to my old friend Aldus Santos—a musician, poet, music critic—about the launching of his second book, Repeat While Fading: Pinoy Rock Biographs. This follows rock critic Eric Carunchos’s Punks, Poets, Poseurs: Reportage on Pinoy and Rock and Roll, which was released by Anvil Publishing thirteen years ago. We were talking about his lineup of rock-idols-turned-friends (Pupil, Rivermaya, Truefaith, Peryodiko, The Wuds) for the launch, when it suddenly dawned on us that this, finally, is our time. It’s our turn.

Nothing underscores this more than US President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony on January 20. For most, this event is a milestone in history: an African-American president is leader of the free world for the first time. For many, this event also signals the passing of an era. “Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what’s needed to be done. Today we are called once more—and it is time for our generation to answer that call,” Obama, who at 46 is undoubtedly a Generation X-er, once said as he was declaring his intention to run for president.

The song that goes, “It’s the end of the world as I know it,” has never rung so true. Powerful countries like the United States of America have been brought to their knees. Gigantic companies—some we thought as permanent as, say, the moon—have disappeared, in one form or another. Respected icons, like Bernard Madoff, have lost their reputation, to begin with.

Not everything is negative, though. Most of it is a cleansing storm. Billionaire suicides show that most people’s priorities are awry—money is not the bottom line after all. People have started analyzing their spending habits—things are not that important after all. People who’ve been losing the battle against the temptations of commercialism and materialism have stronger reasons not to succumb—it’s not about all that, after all.

It really is the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine. 

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