Jordan Szymanski

Final
To Being 20 in 2019:
Should We Kill Nostalgia?

Today, the world seems to be crumbling underneath our feet. We’re on the final few laps
of a terrifying presidency only to come upon a typical cut throat campaign season. Our planet is
dying in front of us. We’re nearing a tax season that might set middle class Americans back
thousands of dollars in out-payed taxes. And to make matters worse, Law and Order: SVU is
leaving Netflix in March.
It feels natural to yearn for a time of simplicity, making many young people search their
childhoods for places, people, and things that are worth remembering. Below is a list of nineteen
things that won’t be turning twenty with us 1999ers this year. The late 90s was an era of
change. In 1999, most of us were newly disrupting our parents’ lives as newborns and the
adults in our lives believed in a new millenium that would usher in change. Well, plenty has
changed. But for a moment, let’s go back to 1999:

1. Average gallon of gas was $1.30

This seems like an urban legend. In 1999, the average cost of gas across America was under
$1.50. What a time where the cost of my Spotify subscription could buy me at least a quarter of
a tank.
2. Spongebob Squarepants premiered
In May of 1999, the very first Spongebob Squarepants episode featuring the high-caliber spatula
and the bus loads of singing anchovies we all remember and love debuted on Nickelodeon.
From then on, we’ve enjoyed musical performances, heart-warming and belly aching storylines,
and lately, some iconic memes. Thanks to the shows creator, ​Stephen Hillenburg​, (RIP), we’ve
all had our lifelong dream of a Spongebob halftime show partially filled.

A few cultural icons were born and have since passed:

3. MySpace
4. Napster
5. Blackberry
6. iBook, the most aesthetically interesting Apple computer
7. ​Freak and Geeks​ premieres its one and only season, a sad truth that’s silver lining is Jason
Sega’s career.
8. Baby Bottle Pops, literal sugar covered baby bottles that we proceeded to dip in more sugar. I
think these still exist and anti-vaxer moms are shaking just thinking about it.
9. ICEE spray candy was also another convenient store favorite that might have been vegan
because it was quite possibly just liquid plastic.
10. Bluetooth headset premiered, this dead trend might be reviving itself in airpods.
Nonetheless, it’s the rich’s original hard flex.
11. Razor Scooters made their debut this year. These are definitely still sold, I just wish they
were still a socially acceptable and feasible way to commute.
12. Twirl-O-Paint, the original art kids known exactly what I’m talking about.
13. Teen Movie era: ​10 Things I Hate About You, She’s All That, Never Been Kissed, American
Pie ​all premiered in 1999―a time in cinema where semi-attractive white people in their upper
20s played spoiled teenagers in lukewarm melodramas, one’s that we all secretly still have on
VHS.
14. Britney Spears’ VMAS ​Baby One More Time ​performance aired in January of 1999. A
sexual awakening moment for pubescent boys, girls, and gays across America that has been
sorely missed.
15. Furby Babies,​ ​electronic robots that could switch to speaking English and were available in
24 different colors. Ended racial tensions for a brief moment.
16. Cranium and Cranium Hullabaloo, personally this is a defining personality trait for me and I
will not apologize for that. The original PSAT meme was referencing this game on the
playground.
18. JLo’s debut studio album ​On The 6​ release in June of 1999, which propelled Latin Pop
Music into the American arena. RIP to a time where Justin Bieber’s poorly done spanish accent
wasn’t dominating the charts but actual Latin Pop groups were playing everywhere from
nightclubs to supermarkets.
19. The Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal came to a close with President Clinton’s acquittal
of all charges on February 12 of 1999.
When thinking back to this particular political scandal that dominated pop culture through
the rest of the 20th century and into much of the next, I remember how disheartening it can be
to be nostalgic for the past we may still be living in.
Just over 20 years ago, the presidential scandal centered on sexual misconduct and
perjury to a grand jury. Today, our president has twenty-something outstanding cases of sexual
misconduct ranging from mild to severe harassment. There is an ongoing investigation that may
prove a cohersion with Russia to dismantle the democratic elections, for which people close to
our president are heading off to jail for, under perjury charges. Meanwhile, our media is zeroing
in on Kamila Harris smoking pot and Elizabeth Warren’s 23 and Me results. Some things really
don’t change.
In 1999 while America focused on who did and did not have sexual relations with Monica
Lewinsky, ​NATO, led by the United States, launched the two-month ​bombardment of
Yugoslavia​. The strikes were not limited to military installations and NATO targets included
civilian targets such as factories, oil refineries, television stations and various infrastructure. This
tension over oil dictation would dominate the foreign policy of the United States for decades to
come, spawning a number of small conflicts in the Middle East that would topple democracies
and give rise to dictatorships, and later groups like Al Queda and the Taliban. The media
coverage of this was obsolete. Bill Clinton’s blowjob, however, was everywhere. Some things
never change.
A major misstep in nostalgic thinking is memorializing the past instead of learning from it.
To be too lenient with our childhood memories is to allow the suffering and implications of 1999
to spill over into a new era. It may be tempting to yearn for a time of innocence and simplicity,
but to allow nostalgia to give way to ignorance may be allowing for a repetition of poor (and
sometimes catastrophic) mistakes. Some things never change.​ Unless​ we start paying better
attention. To be 20 in 2019 is relentless. To be 20 in 2019 is also a unique position full of
opportunity for us to learn from 1999’s mistakes, landmarks, and homeruns; all in the hopes of
making a slight increment of change. We may owe it to the people, places, and things, that
aren’t here anymore. Trayvon Martin would have been 24 this year. The towers have been
down for 18 years this September. Some of the Parkland victims would have graduated this
May. We may owe more than nostalgia to what did not come into 2019 alongside us. While it’s
nice to revel in the past every once in a while, we may owe it to 1999 to be better today than
yesterday.