How would you describe 2003?

Here are some of the main things I remember in my life about 2003:

* My interest in the American Now albums was at its peak, albeit morw during the first half of the year. This was how I got a full introduction to pop music from the late ‘90s and early 2000s, although musicians confined to Totally Hits, which we did not collect, mostly slipped under my radar. Some of my favourite songs at the time included “Praise You” and “The Rockafeller Skank” by Fatboy Slim, “Crazy” by K-Ci & JoJo, “You Get What You Give” by New Radicals, “Bailamos” by Enrique Iglesias, and “Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz

* My sister, at the time, listened to a lot of Avril Lavigne and S Club. I’m nostalgic for both. She also watched a lot of Lizzie McGuire, though not being a television person, I didn’t see much of it except in passing. I do remember enjoying the feature film from that year, however.

* Yu-Gi-Oh! was still the dominant fad at my school for the first few months of the year, but ultimately, it came back to Pokemon with the release of Ruby and Sapphire.

* I started watching Survivor with my family this year and have held on to the tradition to this day.

* Codename: Kids Next Door was my favourite show I watched regularly, especially with the Cartoon Cartoons of the late ‘90s and early 2000s declining in quality or getting cancelled.

* I finally got to play Super Mario World whenever, wherever after getting Super Mario Advance for Christmas. I fell in love with the game when I first played it on the SNES in 1998 and had desperately wanted to own it for myself ever since.

* I was rather underwhelmed by the GameCube’s library of games aside from Super Smash Bros. Melee, so I actually played my Nintendo 64 more this year. I got especially addicted to Donkey Kong 64 again, and actually taught myself how to play the overworld theme by ear right after picking up the trombone that autumn.

* After spending the entirety of the early 2000s at a special ed school, I migrated to a seminar program at a public school in Del Cerro coming into 5th grade. There, I became friends with a really tall kid who I kept in touch with, even after he moved to Minnesota for a few years.

* October 26, 2003 was a rather unpleasant day. That morning, our neighborhood was forced to evacuafe due to a wildfire that ultimately destroyed hundreds of houses near our street. As an 11-year-old during the living room stuff era, this was a near-traumatic experience for me and sadly became the #1 thing I associated 2003 with for many years.

* This was overall one of the better years of my childhood, and also the last time I was not sexually attracted to anybody and subsequently scarred for 13 and a half years for feeling unattractive and unable to find love to any concrete degree.

I guess the main problem is that I was generally never directly exposed much to most good shows growing up aside from cartoons, which I ultimately grew out of aside from a Simpsons phase in my sophomore year of college, not to mention once I was exposed to YouTube web series like the Angry Video Game Nerd as a teenager, I far preferred the looser structures, greater diversity of content, homespun intimacy, plethora of educational/comedic commentaries, and creative ambition of shows I discovered on YouTube and similar sites over the rigid, 22/48-minute serials with polished production values and storylines that increasingly required you to follow the entire series, which I just didn't have enough time or interest to do amidst my schedule that was already packed with Internet forum browsing, Dance Dance Revolution, running, and so forth. I have come across some shows I really like, but usually it's only really geeky series like The Twilight Zone or stuff from the History Channel that catches my attention the most. Typically, it was these shows, plus YouTube channels like Cinemassacre and now Todd in the Shadows that spoke to me the most as a person growing up, not the series that centered around characters whose lives revolved around a universe I didn't fit in with much at the time.

Not to go into decadology but you said 2003 was the transitional year of the early 2000s, however don't forget how transformative 2001 was, things changed on a larger scale during that year.

Anyways for me, my 2003 memories are basically from things such as Preschool, some of the holidays my family went on during that years and some of the popular music from the time. I also remember getting Finding Nemo on VHS that year for Christmas.

Also what I think about TV vs. web shows.

I describe more as early rather the middle. 

In the bold, that's awesome you taught yourself to do that. Do you still play the overworld theme on your trombone and have you learned more since then?

Oh, I didn't know you were in a special ed school. How was your experience in that environment? I had special ed classes as well as general ones throughout my education.

I totally agree! I remember that day like it was yesterday. I went out that morning, all of a sudden I saw a red sky and brown smoke. I ended up going back in the house and stayed inside until it was gone. It was so scary, and we all ended up having that week off. It sucks we didn't get to celebrate Halloween that year.

Yugioh was life. I think I spent thousands on those cards... only to give them away for free in 2006 :x

It got popular in 2001 where I'm at though. I have photo evidence

Lol, I've got memories associated with that song. One of my Mum's co-workers at the time burnt "I Hate Everything About You" onto a CD for her and whenever the song came on in the car after having an argument with my Mum, it always made me feel as though the words to the song were exactly how my Mum felt about me in that moment. It sounds silly now, but it's kind of depressing that my 4/5 year old self felt that way...