2013 in the Distance

2013 sits in that weird zone where it feels both recent and ancient. Snowden’s leak, Boston, marriage equality suddenly looking inevitable instead of hypothetical. I was following the news but felt pretty detached from it all, like I was watching other people’s history reshuffle while I dealt with my own small chaos.

The Snowden thing was genuinely surreal. Suddenly everyone was paranoid about being watched, which obviously they should have been, but it took someone dumping millions of classified documents to make it real. Conversations shifted. But people adapt fast - after a few weeks of panic you just move on and accept you’re surveilled. It becomes normal.

What sticks more is the marriage equality momentum. You could feel the shift happening, not just legally but culturally. Like the future had decided to happen after all. And then Boston reminded everyone the world was fragile before we all moved on like we always do.

Looking back, the strangest thing is how invisible it all was when it was happening. The big historical moments were just backdrop to my own stupid concerns. Work, relationships, the usual noise. The year never announces itself as significant while you’re living it. You just remember later that something was shifting, and you missed most of it because you were too busy being alive.