more thoughts on the breaking news

a friend's most recent Facebook status:

Ok, that's just creepy.  10 years ago, on the day before I started at Harvard, Osama bin Laden entered the everyday vocabulary of Americans.  Today, two days after my [dissertation] defense, he's dead.  His name has capped both ends of my Harvard experience.

i'm just sitting here, thinking about how many significant things i have witnessed in a mere 20 years.  buildings have crumbled, governments have undergone phenomenal changes worldwide, lives have been transformed in interesting ways.  honestly, given all that i've seen or heard in my lifetime--even since December--i sometimes feel a lot older than i am.