Yesterday afternoon I was asked how many life changing events I could identify. It sounds like a simple enough idea. Take a little time and write down the moments/events that changed your life.
I didn’t want to focus on the obvious ones, such as the birth of my children. I am not minimizing them, they are all incredibly important. Rather I am trying to dig deeper and see what I can learn, if anything about myself.
It is an exercise that I expect I might try and do a few times so that I can compare my notes and see if my opinion about some things has changed. Before I get started a brief comment. Due to various events I don’t feel as safe in posting some things here. It is not because they’re illegal or wrong, they’re just quite personal.
As I have mentioned in the past the loss of anonymity has impeded some of my ability to just share my thoughts here. Anyway, I am going to try and list a few and we’ll see how and where it goes. I expect that it will be revised and refined many times.
P.S. For the moment this is not in order of importance:
- First day of kindergarten- G and I meet. 34 years later we’re as tight as ever.
- January 15, 2003
- The death of my great-grandfather.
- John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of President Reagan.
- Little League- 12 years old and I lead the league in homers.
- Reading Tolkien’s books.
- Taking second place in a write-off for sports journalism.
- Winning first place in a writing contest.
- My first kiss.
- First love.
- Falling in love again.
- The first time my heart was broken.
- The last time my heart was broken.
- My first job.
- Summer of 1982, 1985, 1988.
- Spring/Summer of 2004.
- The 1996 Olympics.
- D’s Death.
- My son’s Pidyon Ha-Ben.
- Buying my house.
- The embarrassment I felt after I was laughed for my singing in a school play.
- My Bar-Mitzvah.
- Graduations.
- Israel 1995 and 1998.
- Memorial Day 2008.
And so the pressure is on. That list above is the first draft. It is soft and missing things, but what…
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