I guess it’s another way of asking, “What event in your life had to most effective impact?”
Getting sober
Starting my first proper career in 2008. Or becoming a parent in 2011.
a doma induced deportation of my life partner 12 years ago.
it was a life altering even that turned me from a liberal into a leftist.
An important distinction these days. I’m curious, how will that dictate the way you vote in the next election? (None of my damn business, but I’m curious.) Feel free to message me about it if you don’t want to post here.
i’m too autistic to care about other people’s feelings when i share my political opinions and my post history is littered with it especially since my life has also been heavily impacted by clinton enacting don’t ask don’t tell; biden extolling executive order 10450; clinton, bush jr, obama, trump and biden’s immigration policies; the country’s student loan debt situation created by biden’s student loan act; biden using the inflation reduction action to block truly affordable EV’s; and biden banning tiktok.
i’ll save you the trouble of going through my post history and give you a tldr: both clintons & biden are shit stains in this country’s political history and have fucked me over much more than trump could ever fantasize about; even with project 2025. i also wish kamala was better so that i could vote for her, but she’s seems hellbent on make sure that i don’t; so i’m 99% sure i’ll end up voting for the green party again as i have done in the past 12 years, but this time around i’m deeply touched that nearly all of the people who know and care about me will be doing something similar thanks to my proselytizing.
i’m too autistic to care about other people’s feelings when i share my political opinions
Honestly tuned out after that. Autism doesn’t work that way, and no one gives a fuck about your ideals if you tune out other people’s input. If you want to affect change with the people around you, I’d start with conceptualizing that autism isn’t about disconnection from people’s feelings. That’s just being an asshole.
you’re right; my diagnosis is recent and i haven spent enough time learning about it.
Probably learning audio production and synthesis. Now my misery has an outlet.
Start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Now I have to worry every day that people I know (who have not managed to escape Ukraine) will either get killed by a Russian rocket or will get kidnapped from the streets by Ukrainian “recruitment officers”.
Getting an Apprenticeship and starting an IT career probably.
Covid
The last time a question like this was asked, I said it was when I enlisted in the US Army on Sept 5th, 2001 instead of Sept 12th, 2001. But in reality I probably would’ve enlisted either way (I was drinking the kool-aid back then) and when I enlisted it was on something called the Delayed Entry Program; I still had to finish my senior year of high school and didn’t leave for Basic Training until June 2002.
The actual life-changing moment that came out of that was taking advantage of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program right after I completed AIT. It’s essentially a 2 week temporary duty to go back home wearing your fancy new uniform to convince all your old high school buddies to sign up and be cool like you. I took it, did a couple recruitment events, signed up no one, and just enjoyed some free vacation time. This was March 2003, just a couple days before we invaded Iraq.
When I graduated AIT (your actual job training after basic training) I got orders to report to Ft Hood. Another guy, Watt, got the same orders. We had gone through Basic and AIT together, had the exact same MOS. I took HRAP, he did not. At the time, there were 2 major units on Ft Hood: the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Division. Watt showed up at Ft Hood and was assigned to 4th ID. I showed up a couple weeks later and was told that 4th ID was all filled up, so I went to 1st Cav instead.
4th ID deployed to Iraq in 2003, 1st Cav didn’t deploy until 2004. Because units were basically on a “1 year deployed, 1 year back home, 1 year deployed, 1 year back home…” rhythm this meant I ended up getting stop-lossed instead of getting out of the Army in 2006 when my original 4 year enlistment was up. While I was extended, I was selected to receive retraining on newer, modern equipment instead of the old crap designed to fight the Soviets I was originally trained on. This new training, and some contacts I made while on my second deployment, led to me getting a job with a defense contractor doing the exact same thing after I eventually got out. That job was overseas, where I happened to meet my future wife. And even though I’m in a slightly different field of work now, I can still draw a straight line between getting that experience and contacts and how I ended up where I am now.
The alternative, if I hadn’t taken 2 weeks vacation in 2003, is that I most likely would have gotten out of the Army as scheduled in 2006 but without any training that was directly applicable to a civilian job and without the networking contacts to land an overseas contractor gig.
kicking heroin
Congrats!
Pre brain injury, and post brain Ingush.
But seriously. Wear a crash helmet folks. Saved my life.
Cancer
Winner: Moving to Japan and getting out of the US. Both places have their problems, but I’d rather be here.
Runner up: Corona lockdowns caused me to do some thinking and soul-searching, but also finally made remote work somewhat of a thing. This ended up helping me be able to move to the countryside without the home loan companies being too weirded out by it.
My baptism
My friends suicide. His life has shaped my life in many ways. His death even more so. 10 years this month.
Birth of my first child. It wasn’t just life-changing because “now I’m a father” and such but he had heart disease and the first few months were really rough. It doubly reinforced that my time of being a big kid is over and I have to be an actual adult because lives can easily be ruined or lost by passing the buck and letting other people make my decisions for me.
