What was a turning point in your life?

vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
Something small and seemingly insignificant that dramatically altered the trajectory of your life.

In late August 1982 my longterm boyfriend and I had broken up but remained friends. We had plans to go to the State Fair one evening, but he couldn't borrow his folks' car for some reason, so we ordered Little Caesar's pizza and settled in at my house to watch "Pork Chop Hill" on TV. One thing led to another :jet: and that was the night I got pregnant with my son.

I withdrew from school, we got married, a week later he went off to boot camp (he was already enlisted, delayed entry), and when he returned the odyssey began. So my life I live right now was kickstarted because my boyfriend couldn't get his folks' car one night. Everything that has happened to me in the last 35 years is a result of that one small insignificant incident.

So tell me a story. What was the turning point in your life?
 
kwillia

kwillia

n/a
My senior year in high school my best friend, Jennifer Hambeck, said, "Hey, do you want a part time job on base doing documentation updates? I said sure and at the tender age of 17 that was the start of my career working for the DOD. Until that point I had no plans for college, no plans of what I wanted to do, and no prior job experience other than babysitting, housesitting, pet sitting, etc.

That job not only lead to my career, but also traveling around to various Navy sites/depots all over the U.S. and meeting a new best friend who was the sole reason I met my husband (soulmate).
 
CPUSA

CPUSA

Well-Known Member
I wanna hear Tranny's story.

Brony, what happened in your youth that inspired you to become the douche bag that you are today?
 
jazz lady

jazz lady

~*~ Rara Avis ~*~
PREMO Member
Very thought provoking. I have had several but I'll just start with one.

I had graduated high school and spent the summer getting ready to start college in the fall. Registered at St. Mary's College for pre-med studies to ultimately transfer to another school to finish the requirements to become a veterinarian was the plan. My boyfriend had left to go to Frostburg and I started classes down here. Was still recovering from a case of mononucleosis, so I was feeling still a bit run down but was plowing through.

I didn't feel well one day and came home early from my classes. Rested the rest of the day and felt a bit better the next day, so I decided to take a shower. The last thing I remember is reaching up in the closet to get a towel, then awakening sometime later on the floor. My mom rushed me to the hospital on base and, after running a few tests, they decided to keep me for a few days. Running a high fever and very achy, they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me, so sent me on the shuttle up to Bethesda Naval Hospital for more tests. Little did I know it would become my home for the next two months.

My temperature was raging between 103 and 104 so they admitted me there, unfortunately never telling my mom. I had every test known to mankind done: upper and lower GI, EKG, EEG, liver and bone marrow biopsies, spinal tap. You name it, I had it. The news was not good as I had a very bad case of bacterial spinal meningitis ravaging my body. It was touch-and-go for awhile, as I was pumped full of heavy hitting antibiotics to fight the infection and bring the fever down. Finally, after weeks of battle, we began winning the war but in the meantime I had lost a good 25-30 pounds and was down to about 100 pounds.

And my poor mom. I was gravely ill up in Bethesda, my sister was getting married in Easton (I was supposed to be one of her bridesmaids), and then my brother wound up having an emergency appendectomy in Richmond! She racked up a lot of miles on her car but visit us all she did.

I spent my 18th birthday getting my second spinal tap to make sure the infection was gone. The nurses brought me a cake but I couldn't eat it. Finally I was cleared to go home! I remember putting on the clothes I came in there with and they just hung on me.

So I spent the next year recovering from that so I had a lot of time to think. I decided I didn't have the time, money, or energy to do so many years of college to become a veterinarian, so I decided to start at Charles County Community College (now CSM) in the exciting and relatively new field of computers! They had only one curriculum for computers in programming so that's what I took and all these years later is still what I do for a living. The rest is history!
 
Kyle

Kyle

Beloved Misanthrope
PREMO Member
I don't have any special turning points.

The path to where I am looks like Billy of Family Circus walking home from school.
 
Gilligan

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
September 1981. I was bored with my current job as Asst Production Supervisor for a landscape construction company. Almost four years earlier I'd left the university after completing two years of mech engineering..was bored with that too. Married, but that was very rocky at that time. I'd applied for and received a commitment from a pipeline maintenance company to perform diesel and turbine-powered pump maintenance on the Alaskan pipleline..silly money and all living expenses (camps with food and a bunk) paid for while on the job. I was scheduled to start my first work period in March of '82.

Then I did a back flip falling off a 3-story roof and landed on my head and got folded in half by the impact. Broke many bones, including several in my back. Punctured lungs..other internal injuries...got a nice helicopter ride to shock shock trauma where they were not sure for several days whether I would even pull through. (as recounted later to me my my mother and my wife). The L-3 vertebrae had basically exploded; they removed 12 pieces of it so then I had essentially a one-vertebrae "gap" in my spine, bridged only by my spinal cord ; they held out little hope that I'd ever have the use of my legs again.

Maybe 5 days in to my extended ICU stay, a nurse was doing the twice-daily (or maybe more often) neurological tests on my foot bottoms (they brush then and then stick them with something sharp) when it twitched. By the next day it was clear that I had some neuro function in my lower extremities. Enter now in to the picture one amazing ortho surgeon at UM-Baltimore, one Dr. Charles Edwards. He explained to me that he'd developed an experimental set of hardware and surgical procedures just for a case like mine; would I please sign the waiver form so he could be allowed to proceed with it. Didn't have to ask me twice!!

Fast forward past a lot of painful PT and other issues to few months later..I'm in a body cast from hips to chin and walking with a pair of canes, having just graduated from a walker. I convince one of my closest buddies to make the 12-hour (each way) drive back to Purdue so I can literally try to beg my way back in the School of Engineering the following semester.

The head of the school took some pity on me and laid out a very grueling set of academic goals/conditions I had to achieve during the first semester back; I was on academic probation right from the start. I knocked 'em dead and went on to get my BS and was about 3/4 finished with my MS a few years after that. That I didn't finish it is the subject of a second "turning point" story.

37 years ago...my life was TOTALLY re-directed.
 
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