"Tank, I need a milestone, FAST!"

So someone at work pointed out to me that today is the Tenth Anniversary of The Matrix. I cannot believe that it has really been that long!

When this movie hit theaters, I was:

• Contemplating colleges. Ended up with community college, followed by Harvard on the Mon. For those of you not familiar with Southwestern Pennsylvania, the "Mon" is the Monongahela River.
• Eighteen Years old. between getting out of High School and finally going to study things that I was interested in, this is the time when I, like most people, feel the most free. When you are driving up the the crossroads of Interstate-Life and State Route Destiny. I, ended up taking
• Watching people get real nervous about that whole Y2K thing. I guess everyone needs something to worry about, Mutally Assured Destruction through the 1980s, Y2K in the 1990s, and now Global Warming Climate Change in the aughts. For a Matrix tie-in, there's some truth in Agent Smith's monologue to Morpheus when he said that "human beings define their reality through suffering and misery." We all need something to fear, something to fight/rebel against, etc.
• Raising money for my senior trip. Best single week of my whole life! Remind me to tell you all sometime about planting frogs in the girls' motel room. Good Times...
• Working in a movie theater while this was playing. I dismissed this as some cookie cutter sci-fi B-Movie, when an usher recommended that I sit in for a few minutes. So I did, and I became intrigued. And that is how I saw the Matrix about 3 times in bits and pieces before I ever watched it end to end.

Another fun memory of the movie: When I was working as an usher at said theater, we waited until all the people exited the auditorium which is just about when the end credits soundtrack changed from Rage Against the Machine to Marilyn Manson. This is when we engaged in our three man mosh-pits. We'd run into each other and jump around like idiots as if we were at some thrash-metal concert. All done with a great sense of Irony, though. These were more like mock-pits.

So, cheers to ten years of choosing the Red Pill! I'll be watching my DVD of the Matrix Tomorrow.