092023JC-DefiningMoment

September 2023 - Journaling Challenge - a world or country watershed moment
Journaling -Looking back, the first major event I really remember is the Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986. I was 8 ½ years old and in third grade. I remember how we were learning about Space because of teacher Christa McAuliffe was joining the astronauts on the space shuttle. We had talked it for weeks and on the day of the shuttle launch I remember Sr. Nicholas rolling the TV cart into the classroom and setting up the equipment as students from the other nearby classrooms filed in and sat on the floor. My school didn't have TVs in the classrooms and only a few TV carts so the classrooms were full of students all excited to watch the launch we heard so much about. We talked about the process and the countdown and all the exciting things the astronauts were hoping to do in space and how exciting it was for Ms. McAuliffe to be able to join them.

We counted down with the launch team and cheered as the shuttle took off. And then the explosion happened and Sr. Nicholas was rushing to off the TV while Mrs. McCafferety was hustling us all out to the playground for a surprise recess. I remember wondering what had happened and if it was just on TV.

My parents had my older sister and I watch the news with them and talked about how the accident happened. At school, we talked about it again over the following days and added prayers for the astronauts and their families. We never again watched a launch during school hours.

Years later, while I was a senior at Slippery Rock, my Abnormal Psychology professor was talking about moments that affecting a generation and how for her parents it had been Pearl Harbor. That date was seared into their minds. For her generation, my professor thought it might be the Kennedy assassination. (My Mom told me once that she had been 9 when JFK was assassinated and she remembered everyone being sent home from school and that everyone in her family was glued to the TV and the radio for all the details.) My Psychology professor stated that she wasn't sure that my generation had such an event and then she said does anyone know what happened on January 28, 1986. And a bunch of hands went up. I answered her. “The Challenger disaster.” She nodded and said she guessed she was wrong and that maybe for us that was a defining moment for our lives. I think about that sometimes.

I've had other defining moments since then. Weeks after this class discussion was the Columbine massacre – a terrible moment that has become an almost weekly event here in the US. We talked about it Abnormal Psychology class and various discussions about the affect and effect of media in such disasters.

Shortly after I moved to California, 9/11 happened and that changed so much that my brain hurts to think of the before and post-9/11 life we have. I miss chilling at the airport at the gate with people who were there to see you off. My then- new boss had been on a flight to the US from Poland and only found out about it all when they landed again in Poland 5 hours later.

Now of course I could say the divide in Politics and the hate that has been growing for the past few years and terrifies me when I think of what Benjamin's life in the future might be like. I don't want to live in the Handmaid's Tale or similar hellscape.

Finally, I'd probably say Covid-19 was the most recent major event that everyone might be aware of. But I'm sure I could go on and on. Covid-19 has made the divide in Politics even more pronounced. Benjamin doesn't remember lockdown. He was 4 in 2020. He remembers wearing masks, but that's pretty much it. I honestly don't want to even consider what the first defining major event in his life will be.

Honestly, this was depressing... probably a good thing to record and think about a little bit now I just want to get myself some cake and someone to rub my feet and mope. Can I put an order in for one good personal mope? Almost time to get Benjamin from school so let's call this done.
September 18, 2023
Fonts - Remington Noiseless
Elements and Papers - Documenting Autumn Glitterbets (A Pennington), Time Capsule, SB - Grief (Collaboration), Night Sky, Deep Space (P Kesselring), A Sky Full of Stars (Nini Goes Digi)
Style - Shadows, MPM Diary 2017, BYOC Nov. 2018 Sticker (Mommyish)
Action - Twisted Actions (P Kesselring)