Twelve Years Ago

Twelve years ago, I moved back to Canada from studying and working abroad. In the Spring of that year, my grandpa had died of cancer. My grandma is still alive, and since she is one year younger than my grandpa, she is now eleven years older than him when he died.

Twelve is an enigmatic number. It is the number of the Chinese zodiac cycle, and the number of hours in a clock. There aren't many twelve years in our lives. If we are lucky, we live 7 or 8 of them --- 84 or 96 years.

I have experienced 3 twelves in my life so far, and they roughly translate to major stages in my life: 0-12 growing up in China, 12-24 growing up in the West, and 24-36 finding my career path and goals. Another twelve years from now, and I will be almost 50, probably planning my retirement, but for now, I can pretend to be a part of the younger adult crowd.

On a side note, when I passed 35, I realized that I was now closer to 50 than 20, which was a sobering thought.

This is a blog about what twelve years do to a person. So much has happened in the last twelve years since coming back to Canada that I think it deserves a brief recap.

There was a general progressive movement in the world between 2011 and 2014. Remember Occupy Wall Street? The housing market had finally recovered from the shock of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Smartphones had finally become mainstream to regular consumers. Hipsters were everywhere, and LGBTQ approval was at an all time high, even though there were still many countries forbidding gay marriage.

In Canada, the election of Justin Trudeau in 2015 probably was a belated result of that general sentiment of progressivism. While in the U.S., the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was probably the end of the sentiment. While Canada tightened up regulations, the U.S. deregulated, and the United Kingdom split with the E.U.

Twelve is conveniently able to be divided by 2, 3, and 4. We can view twelve years as 2 six-year periods, or 3 four-year periods.

Six years ago, the world shut down when governments ordered hive-minded lockdowns, and the wealthy benefited from depressed asset prices and government grants, while many lower and middle-classed people lost their careers, asset holdings, and relationships. The world just before the COVID pandemic seemed so bright. I dare to say that the majority of the world's under-50 population remember 2019 fondly as the last good year for making memories.

If we look at the last twelve years in four-year blocks, we have a weird period between 2018 and 2022 that can probably be best remembered as the age of rapidly rising housing prices around the world. At the peak of 2022, 1 bedroom condos measuring 600 square feet in Toronto were selling for almost $1 million dollars.

Housing becoming out of reach for young people then prompted the rise of financial influencers --- "finfluencers" -- and pseudo-socialist advocacy channels like More Perfect Union and Second Thought. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit envious of the meteoric rise of some channels during the 2020-2022 period.

The 2022-2026 period is the one that we have just experienced. The world, while still dealing with the aftermath of decisions made during the COVID pandemic, tries hard to forget that the pandemic had ever happened. The word "pandemic" itself is rarely spoken these days, although for the time being, I suspect that any new form of contagious disease would not make countries lock down and wear protective gears anymore.

I have also been working at my new workplace for over four years. The job is stable, and the office environment isn't toxic, which is pretty much what I ask for in a job. In around 25 years I will likely retire and get a decent pension. In the meantime I fill the off-hours with photography and reading.

Twelve years ago, I had a job but no stability. It didn't even come with a 401k. So after switching three jobs, and doing a lot of catch-up, I am probably finally past the career start-line that many of my former classmates have crossed years ago.

Last week, I sold my old car that I had bought ten years ago, when I lived in Vancouver, at a very discounted price as the car is already quite old. I cannot remember how many years I had envisioned myself using the car when I bought it. Maybe it was just an egotistical purchase so that I owned a car. When I bought my second car last year, I knew that it is supposed to last me for at least twelve years, which is 2037. If I take good care of the car, and with a little luck (given the amount of terrible drivers in Southern Ontario), it can probably serve me to 2040.

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Twelve Years Ago