10 on tuesday (5)

Back to 10 on Tuesday.

10 Greatest Accomplishments in My Life

1. Being Salutatorian of my high school graduating class. Probably more exciting than putting in all that hard work that actually paid off in a life that was still reasonably fair was getting to tell the snarky school counselor that she had been calculating our grades incorrectly (thus moving me from 3rd to 2nd).


2. Graduating college. Twice. Once with honors and once with a 4.0 GPA.


3. Buying a house. On my own. Without going completely crazy (only slightly and it was transient). And the house? Remains awesome.


4. My relationship with my brother. Sometimes I think that this is a relationship that just happened and that was forced to happen because of our past circumstances. We grew up in the same house for Pete's sake. But then I look around at all these people who aren't best friends with their siblings and I realize it takes a little effort.


5. All my friendships. These take some work, too. I feel very fortunate for having kept people from all stages of my life.


6. Moving up in my career. Again with the hard work. It's so nice when it pays off (this time in a world that I know is a little less fair--just means some of us have to work harder).


7. Helping kids. A few of my previous jobs entailed helping children--some dealing with natural disaster, some with mental illness, some with abuse. I know I have made a difference in these people's lives whether they will be able to pinpoint it back to me or not.


8. Working at HAWC. The Women's Center was a ridiculously hard place to work. I did individual therapy, group therapy, worked with kids and adults, with people who came to weekly visits and some who lived in the shelter, people who were survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. I can't begin to describe how much I learned from these experiences but I sure am proud that I did it.


9. The keep-on-keeping-on after Mom died. I finished college, then grad school, then pretty much everything on this list...all without needing to check myself into an inpatient facility somewhere. Or becoming terribly bitter.


10. Keeping some sort of morals. In a world where it seems, at times, like all values are shot to Hell I'm glad I still have something to believe in.