Holy moly, has it been 20 years already?

Twenty years ago this month, I started my first job at USA Today. I was 21, worked the overnight news shift and lived with an eccentric psychology student whose dog liked to pee in my slippers. I walked to work listening to the Rushmore soundtrack on my Discman and couldn't afford a cellphone.

At night, our main job was to put every story from the next day's newspaper online. It took forever. On Tuesdays we'd take a break to eat pizza and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I envied the entertainment writers who worked in daylight, and I befriended the sports staff, who made me laugh and listened to a lot of Styx. I made about $28K, but a co-worker told me most people got big annual raises. I spent all my money on movies and concert tickets. I had so many plans and dreams I couldn't sleep, and time seemed to move so, so slowly.

It wasn't a bad time, but I'm glad it's behind me. (Except for the annual raises. Those were nice.)