Watching Nat Geo's 80s series was walk down memory lane

Feeling under the weather today, I decided to finally have a marathon viewing of National Geographic's special "The 80s: The Decade That Made Us" and it was like a trip down memory lane, filled with a look back at events that still resonate with me. Probably because many of them happened during my college years and  early 20's.Watching the decade unfold before me made me realize the poignancy of the Berlin wall finally crumbling to pieces, the bravery of the lone man facing off against a tank in Tiananmen Square, the Challenger disaster which I recall watching on a TV monitor in the atrium in college. I was fixated, along with the entire nation it seemed, when these events unfolded, particularly the Challenger. What a heart-wrenching moment.The hostage crisis in Iran at the beginning of the 80s was my first real look at terrorism unfolding before my eyes. I was shocked and scared at the hatred expressed toward our country. Perhaps that was what made 9-11 especially eerie for me, the fact that this was hitting home.Aside from all the tragic events, the series also reminded me how far we've come with technology. I struggled to remember when I first began sending e-mail, using the Internet and when I owned my first cell phone.Most of all though, it served to remind me of the actual significance of that decade and the life-altering changes that affected us all -- for better or worse.