> What story or memory from your past are you frequently drawn to as a defining
> moment? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Your first Seattle story reminded me of mine - I flew out here from NYC to interview for a job in 1994 when I was 22. I remember driving around Seattle and Redmond at 10pm on a Sunday night - my flight had just landed and I had never been here before and had nothing else to do in my rental car. The streets were so pretty and quiet - So many trees! felt like I was in a movie. I'd never imagined I'd ever get to even visit Seattle. I think back on that night now at could never have imagined I'd have made this place my home for so long.
This is not exactly a response to your prompt, but it made me think hard about birthdays. On my 25th birthday I put a large, blank piece of paper on the wall and had my friends write things I should accomplish before I turned 30. Some were funny, some were very pointed, all were "me" in some way. I'm now 37, and two of the (rather small number of) people who wrote things on that list have since died. I think about this all the time. Tom told me to write a 25 page refutation of my favorite book (Atlas Shrugged), which I still haven't done, but I did dedicate my first book to him - and with the launch of my second book this week, he weighs heavily on my mind. (Tom's Twitter bio was: "I hope I consume more than I create." I'm trying, Tom. <3) Alex's was "kill an animal, eat it, and make it into a hat." At the time, I did not know that one day I would be killing *her* chickens and eating them and making them into a hat, because dag-nabbit somebody had to do it after she was gone. So I guess birthdays for me now are more of a reminder to make sure my bucket list is empty. (I type this from a tube in the sky en route to Denver, where I am tackling one of the only two things left on my bucket lit: see a show at Red Rocks!)
I love the dance party at Bryan's office so, so much.
What pops to my mind is snowboarding lessons 18 years ago. For reasons I can't explain I signed my son and husband up for snowboarding lessons and then decided I didn't want to be home alone so I signed myself up. In January. In Minnesota. At night. I show up week one, get my foot locked into a flex position in the boots, walk out into the negative 10 degree weather they had predicted for every lesson the whole month, and proceeded to repeatedly catch the edge of the board and throw myself down on my back and hit my head (because they didn't require or suggest helmets at the time) John and I both literally gave ourselves whiplash and could not lift our heads off the pillow to kiss goodnight that month. Our son was sent off with the other fast learning, flexible kids and we were the old person class which consisted of us and one other dad. Our instructor was nice but after 30 minutes of our 2 hour class I was cold, couldn't feel my toes, my legs hurt from being stuck in position and I was done. So I went into the warming house for an hour. Finally I decided I paid for them so I should drag myself back out there. I'm a glutton for punishment when I have paid money. I had regained feeling in my toes and my shin muscles had stopped screaming at me so what the heck. When I went back out there the instructor told me he didn't think he would ever see me again. And somehow knowing I had exceeded his expectation I now felt determined to continue to do so. With the bar set so low that I could impress him by just showing up I knew it wouldn't be hard to be a class star. The second week I only sat in the warming house for 45 minutes. The third week I made it through the whole lesson and the last week it was actually a balmy 10 degrees above zero and I made it all the way down the hill without wiping out. I have been on a snowboard exactly one time since those lessons but, it was the moment in my life where I started thinking I could be more, could push beyond my doubts and other peoples expectations. It was the start of a whole new me.
I love this! I also launched my Substack on my birthday, having launched my website the birthday before! I never had a blog the 'first time they were cool' because I was convinced (as my kids are now) that I didn't have anything to say that anyone would be interested in! Now I know better, and it might not be many people but at the moment the process of showing up, writing and sharing my truth without shame is the most important part for me, people reading and enjoying/valueing my writing is a close second, but I'm going to carry on regardless for as long as my delicate ego will allow!
> What story or memory from your past are you frequently drawn to as a defining
> moment? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Your first Seattle story reminded me of mine - I flew out here from NYC to interview for a job in 1994 when I was 22. I remember driving around Seattle and Redmond at 10pm on a Sunday night - my flight had just landed and I had never been here before and had nothing else to do in my rental car. The streets were so pretty and quiet - So many trees! felt like I was in a movie. I'd never imagined I'd ever get to even visit Seattle. I think back on that night now at could never have imagined I'd have made this place my home for so long.
This is not exactly a response to your prompt, but it made me think hard about birthdays. On my 25th birthday I put a large, blank piece of paper on the wall and had my friends write things I should accomplish before I turned 30. Some were funny, some were very pointed, all were "me" in some way. I'm now 37, and two of the (rather small number of) people who wrote things on that list have since died. I think about this all the time. Tom told me to write a 25 page refutation of my favorite book (Atlas Shrugged), which I still haven't done, but I did dedicate my first book to him - and with the launch of my second book this week, he weighs heavily on my mind. (Tom's Twitter bio was: "I hope I consume more than I create." I'm trying, Tom. <3) Alex's was "kill an animal, eat it, and make it into a hat." At the time, I did not know that one day I would be killing *her* chickens and eating them and making them into a hat, because dag-nabbit somebody had to do it after she was gone. So I guess birthdays for me now are more of a reminder to make sure my bucket list is empty. (I type this from a tube in the sky en route to Denver, where I am tackling one of the only two things left on my bucket lit: see a show at Red Rocks!)
I love the dance party at Bryan's office so, so much.
What pops to my mind is snowboarding lessons 18 years ago. For reasons I can't explain I signed my son and husband up for snowboarding lessons and then decided I didn't want to be home alone so I signed myself up. In January. In Minnesota. At night. I show up week one, get my foot locked into a flex position in the boots, walk out into the negative 10 degree weather they had predicted for every lesson the whole month, and proceeded to repeatedly catch the edge of the board and throw myself down on my back and hit my head (because they didn't require or suggest helmets at the time) John and I both literally gave ourselves whiplash and could not lift our heads off the pillow to kiss goodnight that month. Our son was sent off with the other fast learning, flexible kids and we were the old person class which consisted of us and one other dad. Our instructor was nice but after 30 minutes of our 2 hour class I was cold, couldn't feel my toes, my legs hurt from being stuck in position and I was done. So I went into the warming house for an hour. Finally I decided I paid for them so I should drag myself back out there. I'm a glutton for punishment when I have paid money. I had regained feeling in my toes and my shin muscles had stopped screaming at me so what the heck. When I went back out there the instructor told me he didn't think he would ever see me again. And somehow knowing I had exceeded his expectation I now felt determined to continue to do so. With the bar set so low that I could impress him by just showing up I knew it wouldn't be hard to be a class star. The second week I only sat in the warming house for 45 minutes. The third week I made it through the whole lesson and the last week it was actually a balmy 10 degrees above zero and I made it all the way down the hill without wiping out. I have been on a snowboard exactly one time since those lessons but, it was the moment in my life where I started thinking I could be more, could push beyond my doubts and other peoples expectations. It was the start of a whole new me.
I love this! I also launched my Substack on my birthday, having launched my website the birthday before! I never had a blog the 'first time they were cool' because I was convinced (as my kids are now) that I didn't have anything to say that anyone would be interested in! Now I know better, and it might not be many people but at the moment the process of showing up, writing and sharing my truth without shame is the most important part for me, people reading and enjoying/valueing my writing is a close second, but I'm going to carry on regardless for as long as my delicate ego will allow!