I'm about to turn 50, and I'm really surprised that:
An African-American US President just gave a speech extolling the virtues of a free society in Havana with a Cuban President Castro sitting in the audience.
Something exists that is worse than Al-Qaeda
Gasoline was recently $1.50 a gallon...again
There is actual discussion about a manned mission to Mars
We recently had a decent Star Wars sequel
Gay marriage is legal in all 50 states
The Cubs have a good team
Things in the Middle East keep getting worse, not better
I rode in a self-driving car, and I wasn't entirely freaked out by it.
We can have conversations with people thousands of miles away that are face-to-face and don't cost anything.
The US is only 10 years away from the 50th anniversary of the Bicentennial...remember that? Incidentally, a 250th anniversary is called the Sestercentennial…you heard it here first!
Racism is still a really big problem in our country
Jimmy Carter is still alive, 40 years after he was elected President.
Rock and Roll has, for the most part, been replaced…(but why did it have to be Country?)
We can get really good grapes and oranges any time of the year.
Two anti-immigration Cuban-Americans and a never-elected businessman have been vying for the Presidency against a woman and a self-proclaimed socialist, all to succeed a two-term African American. Not sure I'd have predicted that in the 80's.
I still read the comics every day...I would have thought I'd have outgrown them by now.
Every day I carry around with me something that looks and works very much like a Star Trek Tricorder.
Recently the US became the largest producer of natural gas and second largest producer of oil.
I still use the typing skills I learned in 8th grade every single workday. Contrary to what I thought at the time, it was the most useful class I ever took.
We still don't have economically viable flying cars
I feel the same way I felt about the world when I was young, yet I am voting in very different ways from how I did then. Either I changed, or the candidates did.
Handwritten signatures are still used in commercial transactions. It's like a vestigial tail for our money.
In that same vein, my password storage app currently has 138 passwords. How in the name of all that is sane do I have 138 passwords!?
I'm surprised that I keep getting surprised by the world. I hope that never stops happening.