Matt Brandt

Age: 28

High school: Churubusco

After high school: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute (mechanical engineering degree); South America (Christian Campus Ministry); Indianapolis (assistant manager, Starbucks); Greensburg (engineer)

Current job: Product engineer for DEMA Engineering Co., St. Louis.

Home: St. Louis

Married: Yes (2009)

Children: Expecting

2000: The Internet is “going to end up ruling our lives. I think you’re going to see less and less people going out and doing things, and more people just using the Internet to get things. I think in 10 or 20 years, everybody is going to use it.”

2010: “Man that was prophetic (laughs). I don’t think people have stopped going out and doing things. I think they still do things, but the Internet is right there at the tip of your fingers and your cell phone. Everybody’s got BlackBerrys and iPhones and everything else, and so it’s still a personal interaction killer, I guess.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “No. I think if you would have asked me in 2000, ‘what are you going to be in 10 years,’ I think I would have been close. I think I would have said, you know, married, job, kids. … I don’t think I would have said, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to go work at Starbucks for a year. I’m going to try to find myself, and then after that, I’ll get an engineering job or kind of join the corporate world, or whatever.’ ”

Demetria Curry

Age: 27

High school: South Side, Fort Wayne

After high school: Tennessee State University, Nashville (health information management degree); claims processor, Nashville; claims adjuster, Franklin, Tenn.

Current job: Quality control specialist, Arbor Healthcare, Franklin

Home: Nashville, Tenn.

Married: No

Children: No

2000: The biggest change in high school was “me being a little bit more responsible for myself and trying to balance work, track, school and church. It was like thinking ‘I want to be a nurse’ and just trying to say, ‘If I want to do this, I have to do this, this and this.’ ”

2010: “I know that I can’t really get distracted with too much going on out in the world. I mean, I really want to better myself, not just for myself but more so for my family. I am my mom’s oldest child, so it means a lot to me to make her proud by going to school and being in the career I wanted” and make a good life.

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “No. I mean, every day there’s something new that just shocks and amazes me. Things we never would have thought before. I never would have thought someone would bomb the towers in New York. Never thought that we would see Michael Jackson die in this decade. Never thought we would see Barack Obama. I mean, there are so many things that you just never thought would possibly happen, or that we’d be involved in this war that we have been for so many years. A lot has definitely changed in the decade.”

Jim DeSelm

Age: 28

High school: South Side, Fort Wayne

After high school: Bethel College, Mishawaka (vocal performance degree), Philadelphia (for wife’s MBA), Africa (field work), Nappannee (acting at Amish Acres)

Current job: Actor/office temp, Chicago.

Home: Chicago

Married: Yes (2005)

Children: No

2000: “I’m ready to get out of here. Maybe I’m just bit by the senioritis bug. I’ve reached a point of non-expansion. … I think the thing that scares me the most is the independence, the fact mom’s not going to be in the next room, ready to spot me a 20-spot.”

2010: “With the story that I have lived in the last 10 years, I’ve seen a lot of different places and lived a lot of different types of life, and I think that if my senior-year self knew the places that I had gone and the things I had done in the last 10 years, he would have been very excited.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “I’m not sure what I expected the decade to be. Probably, I imagined myself married, which I am, not living in Fort Wayne, and I’m not, and performing in some manner, which circuitously came to be. As for the rest of the world, I’m not sure I was aware enough at the time of what was going on in the worlds of politics, business, science or technology to really expect much from the decade. But as far as the hopes and expectations I placed on myself, I think the last decade has brought me more than I could have imagined.”

Ese (Isiorho) Esan

Age: 27

High school: Carroll, Fort Wayne

After high school: Indiana University (one semester); Platte City, Mo. (motel clerk); IPFW (one year); Detroit (Wayne State University journalism grad, newspaper intern); Lexington, N.C. (reporter); Fort Wayne (reporter, The News-Sentinel)

Current job: Reporter, Detroit Free Press

Home: Eastpointe, Mich.

Married: Yes (2007)

Children: No

2000: “I like being part of the class of 2000, because people kind of looked at us differently. They looked at us as the hope for the future and stuff like that. And I really liked that because it’s like they have faith in us, and they want us to do good and succeed. And so it made me want to do better.”

2010: “I don’t know that the class of 2000 was any more special as far as the people that were in the class or anything like that. But just the attention that it got when you said that you graduated in 2000, it elicited a response from people.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “A lot of people that I went through the journalism program with switched careers because there just aren’t jobs out there for journalists. So, yeah, I didn’t expect it to be like this after graduating. People tell you the world is your oyster and with an education you can do anything, but I’m finding that that’s not really true, you know?”

Dustin Martin

Age: 28

High school: Wawasee, Syracuse

After high school: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute (chemical engineering degree); Robinson, Ill. (Marathon Oil intern)

Current job: Engineer manager, Tate & Lyle, Decatur, Ill.

Home: Tuscola, Ill.

Married: Yes (2003)

Children: Two

2000: “I think I have to have something to live up to, because it costs $30,000 a year to go there. So I’m going to have to do well.” (On attending Rose-Hulman)

2010: “I’m not sure I’d make the same decision knowing that.” (On still paying school loans)

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “On a personal level, I don’t feel the events of the last decade derailed the pursuit of any of my goals. But on a bigger scale, nobody could have predicted the things that happened in the last 10 years. I feel the last 10 years ended with widespread distrust of other people, nations, religions, and even our government, so I’m hopeful that the next 10 will reverse that trend.”

Gina (Ruch) Stepusin

Age: 28

High school: DeKalb, Waterloo

After high school: Butler University, Indianapolis (elementary education degree); studied in Mexico

Current job: First-grade teacher, Stout Field Elementary, Indianapolis

Home: Indianapolis

Married: Yes (2009)

Children: No

2000: “As a (high school) freshman, I was so self-conscious and tended to worry about what people think of you. Now I am more independent. It’s like, this is who I am, and I don’t care how people take it. I accept everyone, and people accept me.”

2010: “I don’t want to say everything was rainbows and sunshine prior to all of these major events happening, but it was for me being a teenager and living at home and not having to worry about things. But, you know, when you’re starting your adult life, then you hear something as traumatic as 9/11, and just a lot of the economy things and just all of the bigger events that have happened over the past decade, it makes you, I don’t want to say fearful, but it makes things just more real.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “I think I just had always kind of wanted to be a teacher in the back of my mind and decided I didn’t want to regret anything and I wanted to try it out, and I’m really happy with that choice.”

Jack Tippmann

Age: 28

High school: New Haven

After high school: Sprayed on truck bed liners; trained in auto mechanics, welding and refrigeration

Current job: Auto mechanic; Canada outfitter specializing in black bear hunts (Tippmann Outfitters.com)

Home: New Haven

Married: Yes

Children: Five

2000: “The thing I didn’t like about high school was the whole 7 (a.m.) to 3 (p.m.)deal. … And just how little things don’t matter. Teachers try to control you and stuff. The thing is, I work great with others, but they try to shut you down. I feel they try to limit you.”

2010: “I knew from an early age I’m a hands-on guy, you know, that’s why I have such problems in school and whatnot. I attended ITT here in town for some of the simple classes, just to get up to par. … Obviously, it’s just been a short span from now since high school, and I’ve got five kids in between there. Mainly just try to stay focused on what I’m looking for out of life. Obviously, I know I want a bunch of kids. To provide for that is not as easy as it sounds. I still work a full-time job here in town. And I’m prepared to take almost two months a year off to sell 60 bear hunts.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “I would say I’m definitely happy where I am at in life. I think it’s definitely gone there, where I’ve hoped to take it, yeah, I would say so. You know, I would definitely do it again.”

Jill (Vanderweele) Williamson

Age: 28

High school: Homestead, Fort Wayne

After high school: IPFW (associate degree, business administration); Scott’s Food & Pharmacy (store level and corporate accounting offices)

Current job: Senior financial accountant with Allen County auditor

Home: Fort Wayne

Married: Yes

Children: Two

2000: “I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what people think of me. I’m only going to be with them during high school only. I’m not going to see them every day after this. The biggest shock to me was that when I was a freshman, I thought I had to impress everyone, and it’s not like that anymore.”

2010: “I’m exactly a half mile from my parents. I have a brother in between us and another brother that’s a half mile the other way. My sister’s across town, but we’re all in Fort Wayne. We grew up and we relied on our siblings, and so to me moving out of town wasn’t really an option. It didn’t seem right.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “I was able to have kids at a younger age where I’ll still be young enough to enjoy them. But, yeah, I’m very pleased at how my life has turned out. I never expected to have two kids and be married possibly, you know, at the time I did, but everything worked out for a reason.”

Adam Wehage

Age: 28

High school: Van Wert, Ohio

After high school: Rhodes State Community College, Lima, Ohio (engineering degree); Paulding Police Academy; Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office (auxiliary deputy); Van Wert County Correctional Facility (employee); Paulding Police Department (reserve officer); Wright State University, Lake Branch Campus (certified as correctional officer)

Current job: Van Wert police officer, hostage negotiator/evidence technician

Home: Van Wert

Married: Yes

Children: No

2000: “When I was a (high school) freshman, not many upperclassmen would talk to you. Now everybody’s friends with everyone else. A lot of my friends are freshmen, seniors, juniors. Everybody is friends together.”

2010: “I still kind of see myself as getting along with everybody.”

Did the decade turn out as you expected: “Ten years ago, I would not have said I was going to be in law enforcement but an engineer instead. In personal life, I feel it has turned out the way I thought it would.”