In your lifetime there have probably been many moments you can look at as dividing your lifetime into various “before” and “after” periods.
Some are shared by many and some may apply only to you and your close associates.
Now’s the chance to mention them, both large and small.
Here are some obvious ones to start with:
– Neil Armstrong on the moon
– 9/11
– LP records and their offspring
All of my before and after moments are much more personal in nature - moving out on my own for the first time, getting married, moving to Seattle.
World events just don’t change my life that much.
The Challenger disaster. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid, and I specifically wanted to go on The Challenger.
On a personal level, there’s a moment etched in my memory that sticks as a “before” and “after” - I woke up one morning when I was 20 years old, made some tea and toast, realized that I was in an unhealthy relationship and that it would NOT get better, finished my tea and toast, called my stepdad and asked if the cats and I could stay at their house until payday, then I started packing. The “moment in time” is when I sat on the couch looking around the livingroom knowing that a) it was over and b) I had a life to start.
My diagnosis of dysthymia. It’s almost like before that moment I had no self-awareness. I was just a little robot, operating on automatic. Intellectually I know I wasn’t that bad off, but it seems that way when I think back on that time.
In my personal cusps lists I’d have to include:
– When I had to start wearing glasses
– When my “best friend” and I were fighting over who would pitch next and he broke out two of my front teeth.
– When my first wife died
– When my mother died
I would say when I started to quilt. Before that I would sit in front of the TV and just zone out. Now I sit in front of the TV with my quilting and at least produce something while I zone out. 
More seriously, when my Mom died. Before that, I was waiting for my life to start. Now I know the best thing I had is gone and I don’t care if it starts. I will just survive.
On the positive side: the night I met my husband. I didn’t know in that moment how important he would be to me, but I knew there was something there. I could feel that it was significant right there, right then. I don’t know if it was “love at first sight” but I did know that everything changed.
When I decided to quit screwing around and start making money.
First sight of San Francisco - my 30th birthday present to myself.
When I finally realized I would never find the “right one” and just quit the game.
JFK Assassination
My divorce
My remarriage
My daughter’s birth/when I sold my novel (the same week)
My son’s birth. The most profound feeling of love I’ve ever felt. Didn’t know I had it in me.