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Did you have a turning point? - Page 3

My turning point was at the age 25, when i started working. I wanted to finish my ACCA first. It was at that age I saw a side to my Dad that I never saw before. For 5 years I took on his troubles. Then at the age of 30 I left Trinidad and left for the States. I got married, and I have a son. I thought that if I made a life away, I can give my father the rest of his life to be happy. But it never came true. My father died before even knowing about his grandson. I wasn't even able to attend his funeral. My father and I fought alot. I never got to say, "Dad, I am sorry, I love you." Now I have to live with that guilt. It is so hard to forgive.

point turning have Did

Very good question in the first place, and some very touching and thought provoking replies. Here's mine.

I've had two major turning points in my life, both (in my opinion) fairly major and both completely turning my life around in different directions. When I was four years old (1981) my dad left us, and soon after my mother and I moved away into Wigan. I won't say I was a mummy's boy, but for a lot of years it was just the two of us; we struggled, never much money, making a life and a family environment as best we could. We might not have had much, but looking back, I never knew how lucky I was. My gran came to live with us after a while and that's how it was. I dated girls, but never seriously, I never really felt the need, I was happy, mostly, the way things were.

One day in 2000, she died suddenly, without warning. Yes, she'd been ill but it was by no means life threatening. Then just like that, a heart attack and she was gone. After the funeral my gran left too, heading back to family on the other side of the country. In the space of five weeks I'd gone from having a secure family life around me to having nothing, no one, and being completely on my own for the first time in my life. I was not quite 23, and I don't mind admitting that I'd lived a relatively secluded life. Looking back, I'm amazed I held it together, and there are times I almost didn't. For almost a year I wallowed in depression, not living, just existing, feeling like the world had abandoned me - after all, it had taken everything that had ever meant anything to me in almost one fell swoop.

Then one morning I woke up feeling different. For the first time in all those months I had a positive attitude. Get up, I told myself. Get your life back and I did. I cleaned myself up, took myself off to the job centre, and took a part time job until the local college restarted, when I went into classes to get a career. That never happened, though. Just as I was starting to get my life back, turning point number two came...

As part of my 'get-it-together' attitude, I got hooked up to the internet, initially to see if I could earn money. That never transpired, but I got hooked on chatting to people online. Nothing's changed there then. Anyway, it was that which caused me to meet a poster who went by the name "ReneeisXena." To this day I can't explain why, but even online we became very close, very quickly. At first we were friends, but we developed feelings for each other and would spend literally all our online time together, marathon sessions that saw me sitting up online with Renee until well into the night and early morning thanks to the time difference. Many nights I wasn't going to bed until 5:30am.

Once we actually met face to face, I knew this woman - 21 years older, and from another country to boot - was for me. By then we'd fallen hopelessly in love, and I decided fairly quickly I was going to be with her. Despite protests from almost everyone I knew that I was making a foolish mistake, I left what passed for my life in the UK, and came to the USA to be with Renee. We got married, and are heading towards our third anniversary - and I've never been happier.

I went from having everything (or so I thought) to having nothing, to having more than I'd ever had, and that is thanks to Renee. She's my world, my reason for living. At a time when I could barely see to the end of the week, she gave me a hope for the future. She gave me something I'd never had before. Happiness, love, and commitment.

And although it can be hard, living so far away from home and family, and friends, there's not a day goes by that I don't thank God for what I have in this life. I wouldn't give up my life with Renee for anything in the world.

Whew, sorry guys, I didn't mean to go on quite so long.

Did you have a turning point? Health & Special Psychology

Paul, thank you so much for sharing such a personal and touching experience with us. It has really touched me deeply. I'm so glad you was able to recover from your depression and find the woman of your dreams. I think it is sooo romantic

Page 3 point turning have Did

well, first of all, when I was born. That was a huge turning point...

Then at the age of six. My family moved from Israel to the U.S for a year. Now a year might not sound a lot, but it really effected me. In that year, no one came over to my house and nor did I come over to someone else's. In that year, my brain started overcoming my emotion and I sure did learn alot that year. Imagine, two 6 year old children (that's me and my twin sister) come to the U.S, not knowing a word, and in a couple of months skipping first grade and moving on to second. But the intellect is not all that matters. I really needed some friends.

Then, my third turning point, we came back to Israel a year after, had some really good time with our cousins in summer break, learned all the material we'd missed (first and second grade, including writing and reading. It still seems amazing when I look at it, how we did it) and started third grade. I met some new friends, and everything seemed right again until...

We moved to the U.S again (fourth turning point), when I was 13. The same thing happened. Then, we visited Israel in summer break (fifth) and, as weird as it may sound, visited a magician that works with energy. She was known for fixing some of our family's problems and our friends'.

I don't really know how she did that, but she fixed me. After I went out I felt different. Changed. She also fixed my sister who wanted to go on a diet, metabolism-wise, my mother, who was not really living her live in the U.S but ours, and my father who needed some business advise regarding his company, which he'd left Israel for.

We came back, I made some friends, my sister lost weight, my mother started her phd, my brother is so cute, my father continued firing people, and we all lived happily ever after.

Edited: Smudge on 3rd Nov, 2004 - 7:09pm

point turning have Did

I had 2 turning points in my life. The first one came at 36 years old when I was hospitalized for an septic abortion (that's an incomplete miscarriage that got infected btw, don't know why the hospital didn't do a D&C 2 weeks before). If I'd had gone to sleep without going to the hospital I would of gone into a coma. That experience taught me to be myself not what everybody else wants me to be. Quit trying to please others all the time. The other turning point was when I got pneumonia last January. After recovering, the doctor suggested to me to have gastric bypass surgery. I took nutrition classes & surgery classes & I haven't made up my mind yet. I did lose 25lbs this year (not alot, I had hoped to lose 50lbs by Christmas). Then I had a diabetic scare last October, (I'm not diabetic) but the blood sugar tests said otherwise. I no longer eat white bread, flour and limit my carbohydrates to milk products and dairy. It's worked, my face cleared and my ankles aren't swollen anymore.

Did you have a turning point?

This is such a wonderful thread. I appreciate everyone's stories here. I have had many turning points in my life. A lot of them have not been single events, but situations that lasted a long time. Without trying to sound too pitiful, I was abused and lived in an environment with constant contention and just in the way I was treated that I had no control over, and that had a huge effect on me. I was quite a control freak for several years after I left for college, since I never had that before. It was a major turning point living with my alcoholic parents. I really went a bit berserk after I got to college, finally having the freedom to express myself and make my own choices. I had to leave after a year to get myself together. I did so, or at least that's what I thought. It has taken me many years to to overcome the effects of my childhood, but it has had an enormous impact on the person I am today.

I am very sensitive with children. I have spent a lot of my church service to the children and I majored in social work with children in college. I spent many years taking care of severely handicapped children; children with cerebral palsy, angelman's syndrome, autism, children in wheelchairs, children I had to feed through feeding tubes to their stomach, down's syndrome, and all kinds of other issues. I know that I was being prepared to be able to take care of and help my special needs son that I now have. I have a deep love for all children and will do all I can to be a child advocate all of my life. The day of September 11 here in the USA, when all of the terrible events were happening, I watched tv for maybe an hour and then I just had to get up and do something to help these children who were suffering so much from loss as well as being part of that experience. I started a non-profit organization called Coast2CoastChild2Child.org. I don't think the website is up any longer, but it was a program that had children from the state of Washington write letters of comfort to the children in New York and Washington DC. We then sent these letters to a toy company in Los Angelos called B and B Toys, who attached these letters, along with a card from the organization, to the backs of teddy bears with tagging guns. I worked with Mayor Guilianni's office, Governor Pitaki's office, Laura Bush's personal secretary, the former President Bush, Senator Orrin Hatch, and our governor, Governor Locke, all of us wanting to help the children. Through working with the national Red Cross, over 10,000 of these "bears of comfort" were shipped to the children. We held benefit concerts at colleges and churches and we also published a book of beautiful patriotic artwork. Our governor commissioned us to go to New York, and it was an amazing experience to work with the children, as well as firemen, policemen, rescue and relief workers, and people there at Ground Zero that had lost loved ones. It was so sad, but so amazing to work with these people. I was astonished at the resiliency and high spirits that a lot of these people had. Anyway, not trying to brag or anything like that, just telling of my experiences with children.

Meeting and marrying my sweetheart and the birth of each of my children, particularly my first, were big turning points in my life also.

I must say that my biggest turning point was when I was introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and became a member. It has been of such tremendous strength and help to me. It has helped me in making choices and life decisions since I joined. It has helped me to overcome so much that I couldn't do on my own. It has taught me so much and answered many of the questions I had about life. It has taught me that Jesus Christ lives and that he is my Savior. I really believe that it saved my life, literally. I feel that I would have made poor decisions throughout my life and probably still would be, if I were alive still. I have no doubts that I would still be miserable and hopeless without it.

*feels such gratitude for where she is and all she has* Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy post.