What do you consider to be your most important accomplishment to date?

[missy]

I would ask you not to include your children just because that is obviously the first answer for any parent.

So independent of your children what would you say is your best/most important/most meaningful accomplishment so far?

 

[Begonia]

Keeping a cool head in a domestic violence encounter and surviving when others got shot and died. Turns out a childhood of trauma teaches you a few skills.

Helping my mom leave the world after a cancer diagnosis. She helped me into the world and I helped her out of it.

Getting through each and every minute, hour and day that I struggle with anxiety and depression.

 

[Ionysis]

Paying off my mortgage (last month). It may only be a little house in a big wood but no matter what happens now I have a roof over my family’s head even if we have to live on leaves.

 

[Matata]

Surviving a poverty stricken sexually physically, and emotionally abusive childhood. Everything else I accomplished in life pales in comparison.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Finally dealing with all my trauma from childhood so I could stop hating myself. Going through life hating who you are is a special kind of hell.

 

[Ally T]

Finding the strength to leave an emotionally abusive relationship, which in turn lead to meeting my husband 18 years ago.

Leaving my job & putting every penny we had, literally, into a business start up when the girls were both tiny babies. I stayed at home whilst Mr T grafted 16 hour days & in making sure the girls had everything they needed, we often went without, which included any nice food & any alcohol or new clothes. EBay became my clothes shop & best friend. Fast forward to the sale of the company a few years ago & the home we now have / life we now lead & yeah... This is all a really big accomplishment & as I sit here now looking out over the lawns to the fields & ponies beyond, I am really proud of Team T & what we have built for us & for our girls.

 

[Pumpkin Sparkles]

Finding the strength to survive the cards I’ve been handed. Only child, childhood trauma, narcissistic father, after my mother died at 17 her sisters that helped raise me disowned me leaving only my narcissistic father and the women he cheated on my mother with. Raising 3 children alone without family to count on but Jesus.. he made a way and strangers.. became family through it all.
One of my kiddos also has a rare spontaneous mutation in his genes resulting in him having duchenne muscular dystrophy. He’s been wheelchair bound for 5 years and slowly loses his mobility. He will be having a complete neck to tail bone spinal fusion next month. But my head is above waters and I’m proud I’m still here despite all of the difficulties I faced emotionally, spiritually and physically.

 

[Slickk]

Other than my own kiddos, my most important accomplishment happens daily at my job. Some days my heart just positively brims with warmth to see the growth, both personal and academically, that I see in my at-risk students.
Also, being present for/with my parents, as they passed away six weeks apart. And then executing their estate and wishes afterward … all on my own.

 

[LilAlex]

I have relationships and some professional satisfaction but I've got no bragging rights compared to all of these replies up above. Kudos to all the survivors of trauma, illness, and hardship on this forum.

 

[monarch64]

Learning to drive a car. That may sound silly and insignificant, but my dad taught me how to drive when I was 12 years old. From that point on, I knew I could go anywhere and do anything. That fueled the desire in me to accomplish all the other things I have in life.

I’ll refrain from trying to make that seem more profound than it was. Sometimes the simplest skill acquired lays the foundation for greatness. And sometimes it just is what it is: a skill that allows one to propel themselves forward through life without any sense of greatness or “accomplishment,” but maybe just a life lived.

Guess I failed at refraining. Well, refraining never was one of my great accomplishments.

 

[mrs-b]

I wrote 5 full-length books. It was long, slow, and I did it with no feedback or external support - just a belief that I had a story worth telling. When we moved from Australia to the UK, then the UK to the US, i didn't want to go through all the hoops one has to go through as a psychologist from another country getting licensed in the US. So I started thinking - what else would I like to do? And I've always wanted to write - always.

So I did. 5 young adult fantasy fiction books. I made a whole world and endless characters, and I'm currently working on book 6.

I'm so proud I did that. They're lovely books.

 

[LilAlex]

I'm so proud I did that. They're lovely books.

And the movies were even better!

Amazing accomplishment!

 

[mrs-b]

And the movies were even better!

Amazing accomplishment!

Thank you!

(What movies??)

 

[LilAlex]

^ Oh I was just kidding, Ms. Rowling

 

[diamondringlover]

I am not sure I have achieved it yet....me raising my kids I guess is an accomplishment, I am very proud of them, I have always felt like a failure as a mom, but they have become very caring loving grown men of which I am very grateful

​

 

[Ally T]

I wrote 5 full-length books. It was long, slow, and I did it with no feedback or external support - just a belief that I had a story worth telling. When we moved from Australia to the UK, then the UK to the US, i didn't want to go through all the hoops one has to go through as a psychologist from another country getting licensed in the US. So I started thinking - what else would I like to do? And I've always wanted to write - always.

So I did. 5 young adult fantasy fiction books. I made a whole world and endless characters, and I'm currently working on book 6.

I'm so proud I did that. They're lovely books.

I can fully vouch for the magic of your fantasy world & your beautiful books & how captivated my girls were. Lola often asks about number 6 (but as you know, us Brits are too polite to ask!) & feels extremely honoured that she was one of the first people you told that you had been compelled to write another. As she said “I have too many questions & it just isn’t finished yet!” Now that is an imagination fired right there

 

[mrs-b]

I can fully vouch for the magic of your fantasy world & your beautiful books & how captivated my girls were. Lola often asks about number 6 (but as you know, us Brits are too polite to ask!) & feels extremely honoured that she was one of the first people you told that you had been compelled to write another. As she said “I have too many questions & it just isn’t finished yet!” Now that is an imagination fired right there

I just love you and your girls, you know that, right? And I write for young adults exactly like them,. They’re a writer’s dream. oxo

 

[monarch64]

I am not sure I have achieved it yet....me raising my kids I guess is an accomplishment, I am very proud of them, I have always felt like a failure as a mom, but they have become very caring loving grown men of which I am very grateful

​

We never know what more we have in us! Not everyone does their “Big Things” early in life. A very close friend of mine just obtained her Bachelors degree after we were in college together 20-some years ago. “It’s about damn time” didn’t even cross my mind, I was so happy for her to reach this milestone at last.

I do want to say that even though the thread isn’t about one’s greatest accomplishment being having children, there is so so much merit in raising those children to be productive members of society who make positive contributions!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

maybe tomorrow i might do something worthy of this thread
meanwhile im just a little cog in the big machine of life
i have came to the realization im not going to save or change the world
and that's ok, i get out of bed, i go to work and i pay my taxes

 

[Ally T]

maybe tomorrow i might do something worthy of this thread
meanwhile im just a little cog in the big machine of life
i have came to the realization im not going to save or change the world
and that's ok, i get out of bed, i go to work and i pay my taxes

But without the little cogs, there would be no wheel, beautiful lady.

 

[mrs-b]

^ Oh I was just kidding, Ms. Rowling

You are such a nut! But thank you for the vote of confidence.

 

[empliau]

Am I the only one who doesn't know about @mrs-b 's novels? I'd be interested!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

At this point it's finally buying a home. Everything else I've ever done has culminated in this.

 

[Dandi]

Aside from my children, definitely my career. Years ago, I looked to senior nurses and wondered if that could ever be me...if I could teach, manage, specialise, and be involved in such fascinating, tense, major surgical cases, like they were. There was just so much to learn and at times it was so overwhelming, I just didn't think it was possible to ever know enough.

21 years on I now educate, am a manager, and am a specialist in my field, and sometimes I wonder how and when I got the confidence to manage whatever is thrown at me. When I started, it all just seemed way, way out of reach.

I do now know, though, that we never, ever stop learning! I'm immensely proud of my job, and can't see myself ever doing anything else

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

At this point it's finally buying a home. Everything else I've ever done has culminated in this.

A big congradulations,

i was pretty much almost 50 when we finally managed to do this
i briefly felt like an adult

(prepair yorself for property taxes / council rates - they really sux)

 

[mrs-b]

Am I the only one who doesn't know about @mrs-b 's novels? I'd be interested!

@empliau -

Thank you for your interest! Any saleable item related to a member can't be promoted on PS in *any* way - even conversationally - so please forgive me if I don't respond to your very kind comment. I'd ask anyone who does know about my books also not to mention them on this forum/website.

Thanks.

 

[LilAlex]

We only have Vol 1 but it captivated us:



Oops, I'm terrible with secrets.

 

[mrs-b]

We only have Vol 1 but it captivated us:



Oops, I'm terrible with secrets.

Genuinely LOLing here!!

Seriously - is that even a book??

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@empliau -

Thank you for your interest! Any saleable item related to a member can't be promoted on PS in *any* way - even conversationally - so please forgive me if I don't respond to your very kind comment. I'd ask anyone who does know about my books also not to mention them on this forum/website.

Thanks.

Bu**er

we dont want anyone getting in trouble

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

A big congradulations,

i was pretty much almost 50 when we finally managed to do this
i briefly felt like an adult

(prepair yorself for property taxes / council rates - they really sux)

Oh I know, the escrow on my mortgage payment is lofty!