WOW! You people are truly amazing! So interesting and accomplished! I have been reading this thread with my daughter this afternoon, laughing and crying. Thanks for your thoughtful and funny posts.
A note to Threadbear - the world would be a better place if more people were gifted with the empathy you have for others.
In thinking about my own accomplishments, I have a few, nothing very fancy:
When I was 15, I overcame childhood & adolescent obesity by implementing a running program for myself. When I first started, I could only run a half a block and ran at night (so as not to be noticed) and ran in bare feet, as I did not have a pair of runners. After a couple of months, I bought some shoes and eventually was running several miles a day and enjoying a new level of confidence.
Won a scholarship in college (top of my class), something I'm proud of because I had screwed up in school so much until about age 16.
Married my dear husband, and we're still going strong almost 28 years later!
Sang Barbra Streisand's "Evergreen" at a friend's wedding and it was perfect!
My three kids - none of them perfect, but all wonderful, decent people, and the source of much joy in my life.
Volunteering at schools, the relationships I've enjoyed with students over the years.
Balancing my life with satisfaction from my job and all the demands and rewards of extended family life and community involvement.
For the years ahead, I feel there will be much to do and learn. My plans are to learn as much as I can about agriculture, holistic medicine, community planning and then put this knowledge to work helping others.
PeakOil is You
What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by WildRose » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 17:29:53
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Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by firestarter » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 17:45:12
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PenultimateManStanding', 'w')hy does anyone go into this profession? because of love for culture and learning. These are bad times, but I read of a French Teacher who suffered greatly in the 1840s because the kids were monsters. Same thing in the writings of Laurence Durrell. It is the great project to train the next generation in civilization. Not an easy task. Failure, though, means unspeakable horror.
I got into the profession initially because mom was a high school English teacher and my stepdad a college English professor. I noticed that their Summers were awesome, laid back events and I hoped to duplicate their warm weather splendor. I was not a crusader type teacher at all, which I'm sure made students gravitate to me all the more. I was fortunate as a student in the mid 60's to matriculate in predominantly black schools (I was the only white player on my basketball team), which helped me focus more on people and less on pseudo scientific methodology. Ultimately this mindset led me to reject the administrative leviathan altogether, albeit at the expense of not rubbing elbows with the dear souls I loved most. At the end I saw them (schools) as little better than mind jails.
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Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by PenultimateManStanding » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 17:53:03
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('firestarter', ' ')mind jails.
there's a lot of sentiment for that. Not a good thing. But the future is so fucked, what does it matter?-
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Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by mercurygirl » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 18:22:09
Thank you Heineken, for starting this.
It's very apparent that I'm not alone in being a thinker who sometimes gets too negative. We all need to remember the good in ourselves and others. I've really enjoyed this thread and feel I know some of you better.
I LOL'ed at threadbear saying "I'm not a hooker"!! My sister and I have expressed that very thought to each other. We joke that we were raised by wolves. Not the optimal childhood, although there was love. I also feel I'm compassionate as a result of hardships.
I never owned a car until I was 34. Walked through blizzards for years. I hope to go carless again some day.
I'm proud of educating myself. I went to college, dropped out, went back, dropped out, went back and finished 2-yr degree, went back for a little more. I no longer feel the need for more formal education. I love to learn and will for the rest of my life.
I have a wonderful husband who I met online. I moved across the country with him 7 years ago and started a new life, which was not easy.
I have a wonderful child who is teaching me all sorts of life lessons. My goal is to raise her to be healthy, kind, loving, and independent, and it seems to be working.
I've been a volunteer literacy tutor and will someday do more volunteer work. I'd like to possibly tutor in a local women's prison.
I've grown some of my own food in the last few years. What a great feeling and I hope to do more.
'Nuff said. You're all inspiring and I don't feel so weird or alone in these forums, for which I'm grateful.
It's very apparent that I'm not alone in being a thinker who sometimes gets too negative. We all need to remember the good in ourselves and others. I've really enjoyed this thread and feel I know some of you better.
I LOL'ed at threadbear saying "I'm not a hooker"!! My sister and I have expressed that very thought to each other. We joke that we were raised by wolves. Not the optimal childhood, although there was love. I also feel I'm compassionate as a result of hardships.
I never owned a car until I was 34. Walked through blizzards for years. I hope to go carless again some day.
I'm proud of educating myself. I went to college, dropped out, went back, dropped out, went back and finished 2-yr degree, went back for a little more. I no longer feel the need for more formal education. I love to learn and will for the rest of my life.
I have a wonderful husband who I met online. I moved across the country with him 7 years ago and started a new life, which was not easy.
I have a wonderful child who is teaching me all sorts of life lessons. My goal is to raise her to be healthy, kind, loving, and independent, and it seems to be working.
I've been a volunteer literacy tutor and will someday do more volunteer work. I'd like to possibly tutor in a local women's prison.
I've grown some of my own food in the last few years. What a great feeling and I hope to do more.
'Nuff said. You're all inspiring and I don't feel so weird or alone in these forums, for which I'm grateful.
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Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by RonMN » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 19:25:34
Damn cool thread! Good job Henieken!!!
I'm personally proud of teaching my neices & nephews things like fishing, launching model rockets, playing verti-bird & rock-em-sock-em robots, and wrestlemainia parties with my killer homemade nachos/steak/chicken/you name it.
Living to & still healthy & strong at 41.
Planting a few trees which will be around long after i am not.
Graduating computer programming school with a 4.0 GPA (7 different computer languages), after being a C student my whole life.
My comic book collection of which i have several of the highest graded comics in the world (including Nausicaa of the valley of wind #1 graded 10.0...The ONLY 10 i've ever received from the CGC).
Having the worlds greatest dog.
But all pales in comparison to "re-inventing" my relationship with my dad last year...spending his last week with him in a florida hospital...and holding his hand for the last 5 hours of his life. To think he could have died with us not being friends really gives me pause. And I thank God for the opportunity i got to get to know my dad better...and him to know me better!
I'm personally proud of teaching my neices & nephews things like fishing, launching model rockets, playing verti-bird & rock-em-sock-em robots, and wrestlemainia parties with my killer homemade nachos/steak/chicken/you name it.
Living to & still healthy & strong at 41.
Planting a few trees which will be around long after i am not.
Graduating computer programming school with a 4.0 GPA (7 different computer languages), after being a C student my whole life.
My comic book collection of which i have several of the highest graded comics in the world (including Nausicaa of the valley of wind #1 graded 10.0...The ONLY 10 i've ever received from the CGC).
Having the worlds greatest dog.
But all pales in comparison to "re-inventing" my relationship with my dad last year...spending his last week with him in a florida hospital...and holding his hand for the last 5 hours of his life. To think he could have died with us not being friends really gives me pause. And I thank God for the opportunity i got to get to know my dad better...and him to know me better!
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
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Re: What Are Your Greatest Personal Accomplishments?
by Narz » Fri 09 Feb 2007, 21:18:43
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'W')ow Narz, Five boarding schools? How old were you when you were sent away?
13 (was home for a short while at 14 & 15).
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'S')o sorry to hear about your attempted overdose and homelessness. That is the bleakest of bleak experiences. It certainly has paved the way for some peak experiences for you, though, it seems.
Yeah definitely. Having clean, dry socks to wear is something I appreciate alot more now.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'A')ren't you a testament to the triumph of the human spirit. You went through all of that and you haven't become bitter, but stick up for those who are downtrodden and bullied.
Do you think you would have turned out to be such a good person if you hadn't been through all of that?
Thanks, you flatter me. I've always tried to "be nice" but my life experience definitely helped me have compassion for others. Much of my life I wished I wasn't as sensitive and in many ways I've trained myself to become less so (on the surface), just part of growing up male in this culture I guess but inside I try not to supress myself and try to do the right thing when it counts.
Reading this thread is quite inspiring, I still feel like I'm a teenager sometimes, still trying to figure out what path to take. Somehow whenever I start thinking about a "career" (9 to 5 for 40+ years) I cringe a little inside. Strange that even things I like to do (like food gardening) lose a little of their shimmer when I start thinking about doing tem for work.
“Seek simplicity but distrust it”
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