Listable Life - Moments that I am Proud of.
I like to link up with Listable Life every once in a while. This was a post I planned on writing eventually, so now I got a little boot in the fanny to go and write it. Here are five moments in my life that I am proud of. In no particular order...
Surviving childbirth - I thought that being pregnant for 9 months was going to be the hard part. Not so. I was very lucky to have an amazingly easy pregnant. Don't hate me, but I never threw up once. I had plans for how my labor was going to go. I wanted it as simple and natural as possible. Well, that was not to be. Someday, when it isn't such a painful memory, I will share the full story of my son's birth. I will tell you that after 51 hours of labor, I had an emergency C-section. Because they waited too long after my water broke, I got several infections and ended up in the ICU. I was separated from my son for several days. But I survived. Are all my baby-making parts still intact? I suppose we will find out if I ever get pregnant again. But I'm alive, and so is my absolutely perfect baby boy. So it was completely worth it. (Not that I ever want heart failure ever again.)
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PS. If anyone knows my battle buddy, Cox,
please let me know. I miss her terribly. |
Graduating Boot Camp - I attended a military college, so you would think that I would be disciplined and in good shape before I got to basic training. Yea, not at all. They made it really easy to get away with doing the bare minimum of everything. It was almost a joke, how little can we get away with today? So I sort of slid right through military school. I thought basic might be the same way. And in some ways it was very easy. There was a lot less yelling than there was at military school. But physically, I got my ass handed to me on a daily basis and then thanked my Drill Sergeants for the privilege. Basic training was hard. Don't let anyone tell you differently. If the physical demands don't kill you, dealing with unwashed barbarians on a daily basis will. Having every freedom taken from you and then feeling like you won the lottery just to get a tiny morsel of humanity back. Basic training really did break me down and then build me back up. Sometimes I wish my Drill Sergeant could come and be in charge of my life to keep me from becoming lazy again. So I'm extremely proud that I graduated and I didn't even have to kill one of my redneck battle buddies. "But Bigfoot isn't in the bible. That's how I know he doesn't exist." <- words actually spoken to me at basic training.
Leaving the United States - Not many people from my hometown ever leave the state, let alone the country. I vowed that I would not be like that. I wanted to see the world, explore whole new worlds. I knew that someday I would escape and be able to leave the country. Even before I joined the Army, I made that happen. I even got to go to the number one place I had wanted to visit since I was a child - Egypt. I'm very proud of myself for making that happen. I remember looking up at the sphinx and thinking to myself, wow, this little girl from the ghetto really is standing where so much history has happened. And then a little man tried to kidnap me on a donkey.
Marrying a good man - I never had many good male role models. I had a few, but not many. It seemed like most of the men in my hometown were not interested in doing much with their lives. I knew I was destined to leave, so sticking with some guy who was content to live in Lynn, Ma his whole life just wasn't going to work for me. I met Craig in college, but we didn't really know each other at all. Then I re-met him when I was stationed in Korea. And then I married him. :) It was almost exactly that quick. I thank God that I married a good, strong, hard-working man. We don't always see eye to eye, but he loves me and is good to me. He works very hard to take care of his family and I know he would do anything for us. Love that man. I'm proud of him, and I'm proud of myself for not marrying an alcoholic, drug-abusing, wife-beating kind of man. That is kind of rare in my family.
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| One of the greatest nights of my life. |
Being a positive person - There are many reasons that I could be a negative angry person today. But I'm not. I dealt with some horrible things, abuse, homelessness, neglect. I could have very easily become a victim of my upbringing and my environment. I won't lie, I wallowed in self-pity for a few years of my life. Then I got over it. Life was too short and filled with too many good things to allow myself to be a negative person. I saw those around me who responded to their lives with negativity. They never enjoyed the good things, even if there were few of them. I resolved not to be that type of person. I'm not perfect, and I get angry, and I have days where I just want to cry. So I allow myself to feel that emotion, and then I move on. I have a husband to love and a baby to take care of. I don't have time to focus on all the negative things happening in the world today. So I'm proud of myself for being able to do that.
So what are you most proud of? Leave a comment below, or write a blog post about it. Then click on the box to be taken to Moments that Define Life and link up.
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