A Decadal Life

I realized recently I've lived a decadal life.

I was born at the very end of 1959, so my childhood years were the 1960s, while my pre-teens and teens were the 1970s. I was a young adult in the 1980s, finishing college, changing jobs several times, moving from one place to another to another, starting grad school, and entering my life-long relationship. The 1990s were real adulthood (my 30s), including parenthood.

My decades correspond to the decades Western humans have mapped onto time. This is not unique: anyone born in the last few months of the year at the end of a decade can say the same thing.

Still, it was a small revelation to me that I have experienced the change of the decades in a personal way that most other people have not. People with birthdays even later in the last year of the decade can say it more closely than I can.