This new year was supposed to be different. It was supposed to be something
bigger and better than all the past new years. So much for the chaos,
destruction, and giant celebrations that were supposed to happen. With all the
hype built up around this new year’s, its no wonder that it seemed to be such
a disappointment. For myself, it was like every other new year’s; although, I
must admit that all the speculation and predictions made the ball drop a little
bit slower than usual. I had heard about the religious cults, terrorists, and
overly concerned people taking drastic measures and making ridiculous
predictions about the “new millennium”. Bombs were going to go off all over,
banks would crash, electricity would shut down, and people would return to the
dark ages and loot and riot all day and night. The less drastic predictions
included atm’s spitting out money into the street, and people would be billed
for a hundred year conversation if they were on the phone when the clock struck
twelve. Although they are more believable than some predictions, I have yet to
see the day when an atm shoots money out into the street (wouldn’t it be
nice?). Honestly, I think the people who bought bottled water and stock-piled
canned goods had let the media hype get to them, and they weren’t thinking
clearly. I only know one person who joined in on the millennium madness and that
was my crazy aunt. She bought a shotgun and learned to shoot it just so she was
ready when the world as we know it came to an end (as if a shotgun, or any other
gun for that matter, could have stopped that). When she told our family at
Christmas time we all passed each other funny looks and laughed very loud on the
inside. My own hopes for the new millennium were very simple; I just wanted to
be at an ATM when it shot out money. That didn’t happen, so I guess I’ll
have to say that I hope only that the new millennium brings good health and good
fortune to me, my family, and my friends. I don’t expect to see the end of the
world in my life time and I dont think its coming any time soon. I cant say that
I was concerned with the millennium bug or feared very much about the year 2000.
Millions of dollars were spent so that absolutely nothing special happened this
new year’s, and it seems to have worked. Y2K was nothing all that special to
me, and I guess I’m happy about that, though. While mass destruction and chaos
is always fun, I think I’m glad that every thing went along smoothly.