Thankful for One Less Zero

So yesterday, as we all know, was the end of what I guess is now commonly referred to as the noughties (I preferred the oughts, but I guess that seemed too twentieth century or something, or maybe just not negative enough, which addresses my next point). From what I can tell almost everybody hated the noughties. I understand the sentiment. A lot of really terrible shit happened from 2000 to 2009 (I feel no need to go into specifics). The problem I have with embracing that negative feeling is that on a personal level the noughties were the best decade of my life. Almost every year was better than the one before it. From the people I met, to the things I did, places I visited, art I saw, music I heard, and books I read, I was constantly amazed at how incredible life and the world was. And while many things were going to hell around me, it seemed there were equally many things that were evidencing how great things could be. So it’s hard for to say good riddance to the noughties, but it is easy for me to welcome the one less zero of the rest of the century.