All of us, no matter how old we were or what decade it was when “grew up”, have lived through a generation. Some were growing up during the psychedelic 60s when protests, mind altering drugs and free and open sex were daily parts of existence. Some grew up during the tumultuous 70s when the country was in crisis due to the controversial Vietnam War. Me? I grew up in what I think was the best decade to grow up in, the decade that saw the most change, the most innovation – and the most hope for the future – the 1980s.

From high hair and acid wash jeans to the Rubix Cube and Pac-Man, the 80s saw it all. I think it is fair to say that no other decade in modern history can compare to the 80s. Many of the items we use in our daily lives – such as the computer and the CD player – and were invented in the 1980s. Some of the most popular recreational activities – such as the video game and the music video – began in the 80s. And almost all of the people that are in a position to lead this country into the 21st Century are a product of those unbelievable ten years.

When 1980 began, I was eight. Just about to head into the 4th grade, I had no idea who or what I was or wanted to be – I just knew I hated school. But as the 80s progressed, I started to become a teenager and quickly adapted to my generation, taking full advantage of all of the things it had to offer.

Yes, I wore acid wash jeans and played Pac-Man while I longed for my MTV, but the 80s were much more to me then just the obvious stereotypical stuff. During the 1980s, I discovered “the fairer sex”, went from a scrawny junior high school student to a scrawny high school student – and lost my father. For a “typical” teenager – I did a lot of growing up in the 1980s.

Music has always been a big part of my life. To me, a certain piece of music represents something in my life. The music of the 1980s was some of the most groundbreaking and diverse music of any generation. The 50s had the beginnings of Rock & Roll, the 60s had psychedelic music by such legends as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and the 70s gave us classic rock which produced some of the greatest rock anthems in music history. But the 80s had it all. From hair bands, to a British invasion to the beginnings of rap music, no decade had the musical diversity that the 1980s did.

Besides music, the 80s changed our lives by giving us brand new inventions that have become staples in our everyday lives. I remember being the first kid on my block to have an Atari – now, you can buy a Playstation 2 that plays CD-Rom games. I remember going over my friend Bradley Smolin’s house to check out his new Commodore 64 home computer. That computer was so new that you still had to use the commands before each line. “Go to” and “run” had to be typed before anything else. And, I remember when the VCPs came out – those were new machines that allowed you to play VHS tapes right in your own home – notice that I didn’t say VCRs – because those were years away. And my favorite invention of the 1980s came when a brand new network that promised to play something called “music videos” debuted with – ironically – a video of a song by the Buggles called Video Killed The Radio Star – now – everyone has their MTV. Where would we be without these inventions? Don’t thank me – thank the 1980s.

I think the most amazing thing about the 1980s is that although it is twenty years in the past and the world has come so far since then – both the people who grew up during that decade as well as the world at large still tend to go back to those years in the form of music CDs, movies, flashback shows and remakes. I am proud to say that I am an “eighties” kid. I enjoyed growing up in the 1980s and while it may be years ago – I still remember it fondly.