Your Century: The History You Will Live

Today we will be working on timelines -- but these aren't just history timelines, they include the future; YOUR future.  The average American lifespan (as of 2012) is about 79 years.  Depending on your health, your genetics, your habits (smoking or drugs, for example), etc., your life expectancy may vary -- a lot.  Research has shown that smoking takes an average of 8 years off your life.  Taking into account the advances in medicine and possible improvements in health and living, we're going to give you some extra time -- 100 years.  What will you do with your century?  You can use an online "Life Expectancy Calculator" to see what your estimate is:  https://www.myabaris.com/tools/life-expectancy-calculator-how-long-will-i-live/

1.) To begin with, you will get a strip of paper that is about 101", and you will begin making hash marks about a half inch from one side and continuing hash marks every inch until about a half inch from the other side, making a larger line for each 10 years:

2.) Next you will begin labeling your timeline from the beginning [the first large line] with your birth year.  You can label each decade (ten years... the larger lines) after that.

3.) Roll up about 80 years of the END of your timeline and paperclip it.  This will allow you to work on your FIRST 20 years a little easier.

4.) On the TOP of your timeline strip, start adding events from your life, beginning with your birth.  Include births, deaths, family changes, moves, and other personal things in your lifetime so far.  If I was doing mine, I would start with my birth, add my brother and sisters birth, the time we moved, my parents divorce, our move to School Street, meeting some friends and mentors that changed my life, being at a specific school, failing 8th grade, owning my 2nd year of 8th grade, etc.  Things that are insignificant to others, were huge, life-changing events for me.

5.) On the BOTTOM of your timeline strip, begin adding historical events.  Again, if I was talking about my life on MY strip, I would include:

• Assassination of Martin Luther King
• Moon landing
• End of the Vietnam War
• Resignation of Richard Nixon
• Gas shortage of the 1970s
• Hostages in Iran
• Multiple (more than 3) TV Channels
• Video Arcades
• Space Shuttle 
• Star Wars
• Ronald Reagan
• End of the Soviet Union
• Punk Rock
• The 1980s
• Heavy Metal
• Personal Computers
• The Challenger Disaster
• The World Wide Web 
• The Gulf War
• Cell Phones
• End of Apartheid in Africa
• CG in Movies
• 3D First-Person Video Games
• Anime Revolution
• 9/11
• Smart Phones
• Mapping the Human Genome
• Robots on Mars
• Election of an African American to President
• 3D Printing
• 2016 Election

Obviously I could continue and fill in a LOT more events or important people.  The key is putting them in the right place and [eventually] understanding how those events impact you.

6.) When you have finished, begin working from the present and work into the future.  List your graduation.  Label when [if] you think you will be married, have children, graduate from college, get a career, buy a house, do some things on your "bucket list", etc.  Label the Presidential Elections from 2016 forward.  What other events recur on a regular basis?

Next we will look at some video representations of the time you have here.

Billy Joel: We Didn't Start the Fire

Five for Fighting: 100 Years