Do you know what is the one defining moment in time that affects who you are now?

Question

There is one particular moment for me that defined who I am today. I was not going to mention what it is but for sake of the question I will. I was on my way to the olympics, healthy and beautiful before I smoked my first cigarette. I cannot change that but I regret it now. My life is clearly different than what it was supposed to be.

Answer 1

meeting one of my best friends in seventh grade completely defines who i am now

Answer 2

there are many moments in my short life that have made me who i am. the biggest one was that morning when i woke up in the middle of the night and i felt so numb on the inside. i had shut everybody out of my life as i crumbled. it all started off with one huge betrayal and a couple small ones. bit by bit and i began to lose my love of being alive. i was crying all the time and whenever a friend was nice, i would push them away to save them from the depressed person i was becoming. that night i realized that the one way to live is to feel. yes, right now the emotions i felt hurt, but if i could hurt then i could feel good things too. i began to realize that shutting everyone out wouldn't help anymore, i need company and a smile. that day at school, i smiled whenever i felt bad and i got a smile back or a hug. it made the next smile easier and easier. now my life is just about as perfect as possible and i feel alive.

Answer 3

For me it was the day that started what I call the "cycle of tens". Changes that happen every 10 years for some reason.......

The defining moment, or start of the 10's would have been June of 1980 when I met Gene, a gay man. I was married, not very happy, and not very sure of who I was. Hell, I had never spent any time even considering who I was, let alone waht I was!

We became the best of friends, and over time, through no pressure of my friend, and ESPECIALLY through no sexual advances of any kind, I realized that I was gay, and that people could actually be gay and live lives that were rich, full of meaning, happy, and fun.

I divorced, and in the early 80's had some of the best times of my life. Meeting so many new people, rising in my career, being honest with my family, and so on. In fact my relationship with my family became instrumental that decade in shaping me, and fostering the better person I would turn out to be. They gave me strength, welcomed me no matter who I was, who I was seeing, and so on.

The cycle of ten was in 1990, 10 years to the month after I met Gene when he died of Aids. Suddenly, tragically, sadly. But at least his family and friends were there from start to finish, and he died knowing he was loved by so many.

I never contracted hiv, I was safer and saner I guess, and I never judged how or why my best friend of 10 years got what he got, or died of Aids.

Sadness fades, life goes on, and relationships come and go. I drifted in an out of two long term relationships in the 80's and 90's.

The cycle of ten repeated itself in the summer of 2000, when I met my ultimate equal, partner in life. My family relationship is still strong, heck, my family loves my partner unqestionablly. Heck, they would sacrifice me to save him!!!!!!

Thanks Gene, for the start of the "tens" and for 10 of the best years of my life which led to 10 and 10 more, and I hope 10 and 10 and 10 and 10 more.............

Answer 4

Yes. It was a staggering emotional blow; the one who delivered it had also made me strong enough to withstand it. I wandered the world, confident enough to stand alone, but never trusting to love completely again.