In 2010, our senior class was in third grade reading Charlotte’s Web and memorizing multiplication tables. A decade seems light-years away and things have changed immensely over the past 10 years. I am about to blow all your minds with these blasts from the past.

The iPhone was rectangular! The 4th edition of Apple’s signature product shocked the nation by moving away from its classic rounded shape and went to a more angular look. That wasn’t the only thing that Apple changed the world with in 2010 because in that same year the first edition of the iPad was released. Over the decade, we saw the addition of the colorful iPhone, the introduction and removal of Touch ID, and smart watches that made us feel like we were in a James Bond movie.

In the world of cinema, we were fascinated by the third installment of the Pixar classic Toy Story 3 and I know that I enjoyed reminiscing about my early childhood at the end of this year watching Toy Story 4. In 2010, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 hit the theaters, making us wait impatiently for Part Two to complete the franchise in 2011. On TV, the premiere of The Walking Dead was in 2010 and we saw the last episode in November of this year. Also, over these last 10 years, our society has become accustomed to binge-watching shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and The Office. Series that were on the air for many years could be watched in just days with streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and now Disney+.

Politics have seen lots of firsts. We started the decade with an African-American president for the first time. We saw the first female presidential nominee from a major political party. Same-sex marriage was also recognized by all 50 states for the first time in 2015. 2017 began with the Women’s March on Washington and saw the explosion on social media of the #MeToo movement. By 2019, the most diverse Congress ever was elected in the midterm elections.

This decade, many remarkable athletes retired, including Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant and Lindsey Vonn. Linsanity captivated the nation in 2012. Serena Williams dominated with 12 Grand Slam singles titles over the past 10 years. In 2015 and 2019, the U.S Women’s Soccer team won the World Cup in captivating style. The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 2016 after a 108-year drought. And the towards the end of  decade, the first ever number-one seed lost in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s basketball tournament when Virginia lost to UMBC.

We may have thought the world was going to end in 2012 and everyone was divided on what color a dress was in 2015, but that wasn’t all that happened. These past 10 years we have supported ALS through the ice bucket challenge, explored our surroundings by playing Pokemon Go and learned all the right moves to the Harlem Shake together. Who knows what the next decade will bring, but if it was anything like the last one, we are in good shape.