It’s almost the end of the year, which means Writing About Our Generation is almost a year old. Which means, it’s time to look back, take stock and see what we’ve done.

      But as we enjoy a small break from the every-day publishing grind and gear up for year 2 of Writing About Our Generation, here are some of our favorite posts from this year, stuff that made us think or laugh or re-evaluate. If you’re new to the site, or are as forgetful as we often are, consider this a sort of “best of” list, or a primer on Writing About Our Generation, ’24.

      It was difficult to choose. We prize and are grateful for everything we’ve put up.

      Esther Davidowitz, who happens to be married to site co-editor Mitch Stephens, wrote about how she hates her husband…sometimes. By far, yup, our most read story.

      Mitch, for his part, described how he is never bored—not necessarily because of his marriage, but because 21st-century technology has freed him from boredom.

      There are, of course, other ways not to be bored. Melinda Moulton endorsed sex in the seventies—not the 1970s, but our 70s—snuggling, cuddling and touching “without a care in the world as to who might be offended.”

      Jerry Lanson suggested we spend some of that free time we’ve earned by living this long helping others, because helping others helps us.

      To not be bored when you get to a certain age, Frank Van Riper advised creating a plan for a second (or even third) act, which should not “have anything to do with what you had done before.”

      David Cooper reviewed his life in nine innings and hoped—because he has spent a relatively few days on the injured and disabled list—to get in a few extra stanzas.

      Before, many of us had styled ourselves as revolutionaries. Neil Offen, the other co-editor of this site, wondered why, as we’ve aged, so many of us have become reactionaries. Was it disillusionment or maybe we weren’t all that progressive after all?

      Some of us obviously did march in the streets back then, but more of us today are doing what John R. Killacky does, particularly in colder weather—mall walking. It does, John wrote, give one the opportunity to observe the world as it goes by, slowly.

      Mitch and Neil have looked back on the last 75 years and come up with a list of the “Ten Biggest Changes in the United States in Our Lifetimes” includes both the obvious—the civil rights revolution—and the more amorphous, like the decline in formality. And John R. Killacky recalls perhaps the greatest horror of our lifetimes: AIDS.

      Terri Brooks wrote about the loneliness of moving back to the Midwest and then about her reincarnation in Paris.

      We’ve also taken a look at the presidential elections we’ve all lived through, and have ranked them, from the least consequential to the most. You can probably guess where the most recent election ranked.

      During this presidential election year, Writing About Our Generation tried to stay, as they now say, topical AF. We’ve posted interesting and relevant takes about the Olympics, the solar eclipse, the World Series and, of course, about this political season.

      Here’s Jerry Lanson again, before Election Day, roiling in the turbulence of tracking polls; here’s Neil again, coming to grips with what it was like to be 6,000 miles away on Election Day and here’s Mitch Stephens noting that there are lies, damned lies and then there’s Trump. Mitch also explained in a lively video how Trump is right there with history’s most notorious liars.

      Of course, when you get to a certain age, each year is more than just what happens in the country or the world. It’s also what happens to our bodies. Laura Small wonders whether caregiving has become her hobby, as she updates the information required at still another medical appointment. Neil tells the story of how he almost died a year ago—and how the ordinary has become the extraordinary during the post-heart attack year.

      The years pass quickly at a certain age, but Sharon Barrell was able to travel back in time, through music. While Melinda Moulton wrote that no matter how much time has elapsed, she was still a hippie. And Mitch explored, in another video, the wish that time could be reversed.

      Let us know what you think—do you have any favorite posts? Anything that you enjoyed so much you’d like to read or see again?

      Comment here—you don’t have to use your real name or your real email address—or write to us at writingaboutourgeneration.com. And happy holidays!

      We’ll be back with daily publication and weekly letters in the new year. You can get on our mailing list by emailing us here.