An in depth record of events

Nineteen years ago today the East German government announced that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. This announcement came after several weeks of civil unrest, and eventually paved the way for German reunification which was finalized the following October. On this day the long time symbol of the Iron Curtain (the Berlin Wall) was symbolically torn down and done away with (and technically small bits of it were physically torn down as well). In the weeks to follow bits were slowly chipped away by souvenir hunters among others, while later industrial equipment was used to remove the rest. This was a huge day in the history of Germany, Europe, and the world.

For some reason I was reading through an old journal of mine the other day. I had stumble across it as I was emptying some boxes (yes, we're still not entirely settled here), and started flipping through it. I had several journals when I was younger, none of them were kept as well as mine is now, but they would last for several months at a time. I was impressed with this one because I wrote almost every day for a little more than a year. Of course, most of it was utter nonsense, and not even stuff about all the boys I liked or anything. It just has a record of what I did each day, which was pretty boring. It was written in 1989 and 1990 while I was in 5th grade, and for some reason I ended all my entries by signing off with "goodbye dear diary" as if my diary's name was actually "dear diary". I noticed that I recorded the events of this historical day in all my 5th grade glory and detail. Here is my word for word entry for that day.

Dear Diary,
Today Mrs. Dreier is back. We had a book review this morning.
In science we played a fun game. In math I have no homework tonight. Tonight I'm going on a date with my mom. After school I played with Elizabeth. Today the walls of East Germany were opened. It's the first time since world war two. Well good bye dear diary.

I just found that highly entertaining the way my mind worked (and I'm sure some of you may still find it hightly entertaining the way my mind works now). This major piece of news was just thrown in the mix with my other very important activities, and mentioned in a rather nonchalant sort of way. It's interesting to see how much we change as we get older, as life gets more and more complicated and as the joys of having relatively no responsibilities disappear. Those things which at the time were all encompassing and all consuming and which were of course THE most important things in the world now just seem like insignificant drivel. Oh what I wouldn't give to somehow recapture that innocense and be able to hold onto it.