I won first prize in the school’s welly throwing competition. The prize was a golden wellington boot full of colouring pens.
Winning
Let us know, because I liked the first a lot.
Cool! What are the books about?
Thanks! That means a lot. I’ll post in Café Society when it’s published.
The first one is a fantasy-adventure called “Sailor of the Skysea”, and the second one (which I’m wrapping up) is a fantasy-satire called “The Pen is Mightier”.
I wish I could, but it was almost 20 years ago. I do remember it involved some pieces of aluminum angle and a T-extrusion in an arrangement that extended 4 or 5 inches from the nearest floor support structure, but that’s all my brain will dredge up. The drawings are in a data package somewhere in Jacksonville, but I doubt even the project leader could put his hands on them now.
Legally emancipated when I was 17, worked full-time to pay for my expenses while taking high school classes and a college course for dual enrollment + a zillion extracurriculars. Graduated 2nd in my class with 13 senior awards, plus full ride scholarship to University of Michigan. If I could have given the middle finger to my parents during my Salutatory address, I totally would have.
B.A. from U of M, With Honors, despite having to withdraw for close to a full year due to major depressive disorder, and petition the board to get back in, and also miracles happened with regard to funding because administrators believed in me that much.
M.S.W. from Penn (also 4.0) which I got while undertaking a very difficult and intensive mental health treatment for PTSD.
Every bit of my education has been a struggle, because I am not a psychologically normal person, I fought tooth and nail for every scrap of success, I earned it, and I am damn proud of it.
I didn’t know you had published anything! Just added you to Goodreads ‘‘Want to Read’’ list.
Great! I hope you enjoy it.
I’m writing a book, too! It’s terrible! But the important thing is that I’m doing it!
You’ll have to tell us about it when it’s done. Good luck!
Got myself out of a crap $7.50 tutoring job (post divorce; wasn’t allowed to work while married) and into an higher ed position after about 10 years out of the school biz, with virtually no connections or network, then six years after that got my arse out of adjunct hell and into a full time academic position, again with virtually no references or network connections, in another country. My current position is approximately where I would have been had I gone straight into a university position from the year I was awarded my PhD, so in in a weird, round about way, I’ve managed to compensate for all of the lost time.
At that job I got plunked into the middle of someone’s half-baked plan for a new course pathway for our department (sort of like what would be a concentration in a major back in the US) and was promoted to being its director, and now two years later it is recruiting students so well they may well have to hire two full time lecturers (assistant professors) to help me.
As a colleague recently put it, ‘If you leave us now, we’re fucked.’
I dropped out of high school three months into my junior year and got married a month later (at 16 years old). The following summer, Hallgirl 1 was born, and 19 months after that, Hallgirl 2. I was divorced 9 months after Hallgirl 2 was born. No, those aren’t my accomplishments of which I’m proud.
In spite of dropping out of high school, being married and having two kids as a teen, and later becoming divorced, I managed to:
[ul]
[li]Get my GED (Only 63% of teenagers who give birth before age 18 either graduate from high school or receive their GED)[/li][li]Go to college and get a Bachelors degree (less than 2% of teen mothers obtain a college degree)[/li][li]Raise two girls as a single mom (and eventually Hallboy–also as a single mom[/li][li]None of the kids were ever involved with illegal activity (Children born to teen mothers are almost three times as likely to be incarcerated during their adolescence or early 20s as are the children of older mothers.)[/li][li]None of the kids had or were responsible for a teen-age pregnancy (Children of teen mothers are more likely to become teenage parents themselves than those born to women who delay childbearing)[/li][li]All of the kids graduated from high school (Children of teen mothers are less likely to complete high school)[/li][li]Both Hallgirls attended and graduated from college with Bachelors degrees[/li][li]Hallboy joined the USAF (and is currently serving)[/li][/ul]
Site for all the crap that statistically should have been our lives, but wasn’t.
It wasn’t easy–I worked my ass off to work and go to school and raise three kids. It took me forever to get through college (and I’ll owe Sallie Mae until I die) and we lived in poverty for the majority of those years (thank Og for food stamps and Section 8 housing). But I got three awesome kids out of the deal, so for me, it was all worth it.
You deserve to be proud of yourself. As a divorced dad I was proud that I worked two jobs and got my kids through college but I have to give the kids mom the bulk of the credit for carrying the burden of child rearing. You did an exceptional job.
Over 30 years of marriage.
Nice.
I am very proud of all of you!
So you finished in 2014? 
You know, I have a friend who says we value the things we suffer the most for, and goddammit if he isn’t right.
I went back to school fulltime while working fulltime and graduated last year with a bachelor’s and a 3.7 GPA.
Now I just need a job. 
I have a “greatest achievement”, but I’m not really proud of it. I earned a Ph.D ten years ago. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into it, but I have always felt “meh” about it.
I feel pretty much the same for everything else. Don’t get me wrong. I am in a fortunate position with (I think) an enviable life. But it all seems like the result of good luck more than hard work. I can pat myself on the back for some stuff, but on the whole, I think I’m just a lucky fool.
But one thing I have to give myself credit for is not letting myself succumb to negative thoughts. I used to feel so hopeless about myself and my life. A lot of that was brain chemistry, but some of it was me being genuinely unhappy with my circumstances. I put some effort into changing my circumstances so that my feelings would change. But it’s not really pride I feel when I think about this. It’s more like gratitude and relief.