Midnight.
No big boom.
No ball of fire.
No little green men.
No voice coming from the
heavens.
Sure there's the normal
amount of fireworks, foghorns and reckless driving, but society has been
waiting for three years for Y2K to come; now it must wait another 365.25 days.
How far off can the calendars be?
In 2004, the world will go
to the green men since they apparently won't come here. This January, a land
rover has already landed on Mars, in search of water and more importantly the
extraterrestrial men everyone knows are there.
More missions, including
possibly landing a crew of astronauts onto the surface of Mars are planned for
the rest of the year. Possibly causing war with the green men, they are trying
for a peaceful invasion.
Freshman Sarah Stasney is
excited for the prospect of human life on Mars. "I want my brother to be
sent there permanently," she said.
On earth, war wages between
technological industries and the music industries. Smaller and smaller iPods
are predicted to come out; even earring-sized iPods with more memory than
personal computers will hit the markets in the next 12 months, which will
increase the traffic of music downloads.
While good for most people,
these iPods cause the music industries of America to go up at arms fighting
users of the downloading software and killing the “music mines.” The Supreme
Court will make a definitive ruling sometime this year, either imposing a
strict no-download precedent or a liberal, “do-what-you-want” ruling.
"They'll try to make
sure people won't download music online, but eventually they'll have to give
up," said junior Meghan Sundermeier.
That non-bloody war still
rages, but the United States’ involvement in the Iraqi crisis is slowly coming
to a close. During the next four months, soldiers and politicians will be
slowly building a solely Iraqi government, weaning them off U.S. dependence
until the final break scheduled for May. Time will tell whether Iraqi
independence will succeed.
Patriotically, sophomore
Michelle Sauvageau said, "I want the war to be over, and all the soldiers
to be sent home safely."
The short-term outcome of
this liberalizing will have direct effects on U.S. politics. If all goes well
in Iraq, points to current President George Bush, however, if war breaks out
again, the democrats will have more than a fighting chance in the 2004
presidential election.
"I think if people
educate themselves more on the candidacy, everyone will be more
satisfied," said junior Casey Langwith.
While Iraq has importance in
U.S. global relations, as does Athens. The Summer Olympics will decide for the
next four years, which country has the ultimate summer athletes.
Sophomore Amanda Goodrich
anxiously awaits this summer. "I want the U.S. softball team to win the
summer Olympics by a landslide."
A year of the usual drudgery
of chick flicks, horror films, intense drama and Disney films will ensue.
However, fans do have a possible Harry Potter book as well as more Dan Brown to
anticipate.
As for the Marian students,
some will anxiously follow the news for the latest details on these events.
Others will at least be aware they are occurring. About 200 will leave to be
replaced by 200 completely naïve newbies.
Life will go on as it has
for the last thousand or so years, as it will go on for the next thousand or so
years until the world blows up.
So, always wear your seat
belt and hold on tight.