What are your defining moments?

Originally Posted by teriyakimonkey

I haven't got a clue Apeth. I've been thinking about it since starting the thread and haven't really got anywhere with it. Maybe I still need to be defined.

I'm the same; I've had lots of major events, moving to uni, etc, but these are all things that were planned. I've grown up a lot but not really through events that I would refer to as major.

This is a brilliant thread though, and I hope you all don't mind me (and others) having an opening into your lives.

Conrad

I thought of a couple that are okay in no particular order,

Moving out of home and moving to university. This one has been covered a couple of times, but I'll elaborate. I'm an only child, and all my life I have had a silly amount of attention, love and care. Moving out on my own in uni halls and thriving to some degree, eventually, showed me that I am capable of being my own person. It took me a while and I grew up very fast, was a bit of an hussy for a while but soon grew into myself. It was very affirming to know that I can be whatever or whoever I want to be.

Secondly, my ex girlfriend had a kid. We were together a while and I used to get up at 6:30 to sit and watch CBeebies with him. One time, he was lying on my chest and slowly drifted off to sleep, giving a little sigh as he slipped deeper into sleep. He's probably forgotten me now, but giving a little person that security for even a little while made me realise that there's much, much more to life than anything I had previously considered. People remarked at the time how good I was with him, and it was a complete turnaround for anything I'd considered before.

Thirdly; this is a toss-up between passing my bike test and my first proper job. The bike test expanded my views on places and to some degree, people. It has also given me a lot more self confidence and reduced my aggression. I am also able to be much more focussed, able to plan things more in advance and enjoy the moment, something which I very much struggled with doing before then.

My first 'proper' job was working in an advertising agency, doing graphic and web design with a bit of copywriting from when I was 15-18, on and off. I got paid £15 per hour, and that is a LOT of money when you have no outgoings and working anything up to 20 hours a week. So I lived a very good couple of years and also dealt with things like client meetings with people up to three times my age. I think that perhaps the defining moment of that job and maybe that whole year was when, as a 16 year old, I got paid £45 to sit in a pub for three hours, drinking on someone else's money and then going back, throwing a website together in half an hour and the client being perfectly happy. It was at that precise moment, throwing up in the toilet after several (I wasn't the drinker I am now, 4 years ago :P) pints of real ale (was into that at the time) that I realised that maybe I could have a career and earn a lot of money by talking; we basically tricked a man out of 3 hours of studio/copywriting time which was about £350, all told. Plus expenses which included pies from Rooks and lots of beer. It was when I started getting into the white, powdery side of that lifestyle that it hit me that I might actually have to start working for a living, as the advertising world is not the real world.

Sorry about the long post, I had a long think about it.

[Balky001]

1. Becoming a dad

2. Leaving a retail job at 30 and getting a job in asset management

3. Taking up biking at 35. Found what I was looking for, got to meet some cool people and love the track.