What are your proudest achievements?

j2

We're all working hard and trying to better ourselves every day. We're on a relentless quest for reaching our goals and we will stop at nothing to make it happen. But from time to time it's nice to sit and 'ark back on some of the good times and think of our achievements.

For me it was:

1) Buying my first house. Big deal to me at 30, felt like a real moment of "huh, I actually did it!"

2) Winning a national title and getting selected for a national squad at my sport of choice which I won't doxx myself by naming.

3) Getting through college, didn't like it much but got through it with a first in the end.

4) And an odd one maybe lol but getting out the craziest loudest and smelliest fart ever actually came out as visible green smoke believe it or not lol

5) Setting up my own business

What about you? What have been your proudest achievements?

Wanderer78

definitely accepting professional help in regards mental health issues, and just learning to accept myself, im a far happier person since these decisions, by far my most proudest achievements....

Graces7

Still being alive and able at almost 80 years old,

Given the way my life and health have panned out that is a sheer miracle of God''s grace that I never stop giving thanks for. So I am careful with it.

thomil

I know it may sound trite and shallow, but for me, it's my professional career, particularly over the last sixteen years.

I'm a school dropout. No Abitur, Matura, Leaving Cert or what have you. When I arrived back in Germany after dropping out, I dropped straight into unemployment & social welfare. Given how pedantic Germany is about having the right paperwork, I didn't really rate my chances of getting out of unemployment too highly. I managed to land one twelve-month fixed-term job as a security guard for the US Army in Germany but lost that when the base I was working on was closed down, resulting in another year and a half of unemployment.

And yet, sixteen years ago, I managed to make my way into a permanent position, working customer service for DHL, got hired out of that job by Apple, who also paid for my move to Ireland, and except for one three-month burnout-related break, have been employed continuously ever since. I'm now earning more money than I ever expected to earn, can afford a decent apartment and am working in a job I truly enjoy, with an amazing team.

Not bad for a dropout...

Graces7

thomil.. I think that we who have had to really struggle are all the more focussed and stronger? My very promising teaching career was cut short by a misdiagnosed and badly dealt with illness and after that life was a .....

But I have survived and it changed my priorities and values radically. Life knocks us down.. but we find or create the strength to get up again. And are stronger in different ways.

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120306415#Comment_120306415

I think that’s your resilience and character, Grace.

Galwayguy35

Wouldn't really call it a proud achievement but I was very fond of the booze when I was in my 20s and early 30s, used to binge drink every weekend but thankfully managed to come out the other side of it.

NSAman

1. Pulling a few strings and bending the rules a little to re-unite a brother and sister after 3 years in a war zone.
2. being able to help my family in life.
3. having the full trust of friends.
4. being able not to give a damn what others think.

Jim_Hodge

It might sound a bit twee but it has to be rearing our children, ensuring they got the education they deserved and seeing them grown to grounded adults with families of their own and not only the jobs they wanted but all working in caring occupations and doing very well.

Donald Trump

Stormy Daniels

thomil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120306415#Comment_120306415

I wouldn't necessarily call it stronger, at least not in my case. God knows I have more than my share of moments of despair and weakness. But I do think that having experienced hardships, such as in our cases, we tend to have a better sense for what really matters, and are better able to block out the minor annoyances and distractions, which leaves us with more energy to deal with the real problems.

cj maxx

Coming 2nd in the civil service exam and the shock on my goodie two shoes sister when she was 35th In the same exam.

Sgt Hartman

Buying a house at 40 with my OH is probably my biggest achievement. I should have done it years beforehand but better late than never. Also, I've pulled through and survived times where I was in the pit of despair, and I'm in a much better situation now than I ever was. My life experiences have also helped me become a much better person than I used to be.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307632#Comment_120307632

Absolutely. It instils real values in us rather than flimsy ones... This last while I have been assured in many small(!) ways that I belong out here and am needed and valued. Just for BEING who I am and where I am... Oh and knitting red and green Mayo hats is of course a huge asset! lol... Ad astra per ardua..and it is not the falling down that matters.. It is the getting up again....A huge struggle but!

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307034#Comment_120307034

Ah with a huge amount of support along the way..

And moving to rural Ireland 20 years ago from overcrowded England was a master stroke..

JupiterKid

I have a few including my academic and professional qualifications and publications - but two in my almost 48 year life stand out the most:

Finally getting fully sober in early 2019 after almost a decade mired in worsening alcoholism and many stints in rehab. My drinking very nearly killed me and my loving partner was a critical support in helping me every step along the difficult road to sobriety after many, many false starts.

Living on my own five days a week in the family home at 15 years of age in the early 1990s and learning to cook, do laundry, get myself up in the morning for school etc. after my mother died suddenly and tragically - my dad worked up in Belfast Monday to Friday and came back at weekends and both my older sisters had moved out (one abroad, another to a house share with her college friends) - I got great support from family, neighbours, friends of the family etc. and I wanted to show everyone I could do it and prove the naysayers at the time wrong - and I did!

Between the ages of 15 and 18 I grew up very fast.

Graces7

One of mine, loooong ago, was graduating at University with a top second Honours degree,.. when university places, ie in 1961- 1964, were as rare as the proverbial hens teeth.

3rd in a very large class

My father had long since abandoned us and then my only brother died in an accident. I was determined to achieve as much as I could in spite of these events.

It was English Honours with Greek and French as subsidiaries and very very hard work! Passing the Royal Academy of Dancing Intermediate Executant Full membership exam a few years later was icing on the cake, as was working on the pilot scheme to establish Classical Ballet as an O Level subject soon afterwards with the Hammond School in Chester. and the Royal Ballet School.

Even the onset of the intractable major illness that halted my career cannot change these things.. No regrets.

And finding fulfilment in other ways that life and faith provided in however different and muted a way. ie I survived.. and find joy .

I bought my own apartment a few years ago and paid for half of it up front from my own savings leaving me with a smallish 15 year mortgage which means I'll be mortgage free by 50. When I started the job I'm still in I had 45 euro to my name and no leaving cert but now I earn a decent wage and am content with my lot. There was a time in my early 20's when I was unemployed and terrified of how to get from there to home ownership and stability but I have managed to do it and it's undoubtedly the best thing I'll achieve in life.

Mad_maxx

Two wonderful children

BorneTobyWilde

Another 24 hours

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120311777#Comment_120311777

A timely reminder of a basic reality for all of us.

Thank you.