let's forget 2007 which will soon be over, mercifully. for 2008 I hope that everyone I know and love has a good year, that I make some money, that I finish three half finished books which would take care of the make some money problem. I hope those of you with serious health problems improve and feel better. I hope I continue to lose weight. I hope things in the world get less violent (I actually wish that, don't have a lot of hope about it.)
Let's Ring Out the Old.... Tell Us About Your 2007
by AK - Jeff 23 Replies latest jw experiences
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R.F.
I'll say that I hope 2008 is ALOT better.
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aquagirl
2007 Was a kickass year for me...Many revelations,many goodbyes,a few hellos..Life just gets better and better.Amazing.....Cant imagine how 2008 could be better..More music maybe?More reconciliation w/my parents?Que'sera sera..Whatever..I have started volunteering to take a cancer patient to her treatments a coupl'a times a month..Those days,I wander around the cancer ward.While she is getting injected w/hideous poisons to kill her disease,I walk around and look..Those are the times that I realize,that to have my life,my healthy body,and the hopes of a long life actualy makes me a god...What else is important,really?..
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nvrgnbk
2007- Started posting on JWD and did so to a degree that many would consider unhealthy, but it helped me get past the anger and bitterness that came from realizing I'd dedicated 34 years to something that wasn't what I thought it was.
2008- I hope to move on. In fact, I know I will.
I've never been happier or had more clarity. Just need to work out some details.
I wish success and peace to all that visit here.
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cognizant dissident
NVR- you better NOT move on without giving some people here your email addy to keep in touch, Mister!
Well, I started 2007 with half my face paralyzed, so that was not an auspicious beginning. It's better now, Thank
godmother nature for drugs!I went back to school to start on my degree all over again. At this rate, I should have it in time for retirement! I'll be the only grad who goes from college straight to the nursing home
I realized I did not want to be in business with my family.
I realized I did not want to be in family with my family.
I learned it is much more difficult to disentangle oneself from family emotionally than financially.
I made a decision to live autonomously, true to my own self.
I faced the fear, and came out to my parents as an apostate. (see above)
I gave up anti-depressants for faith that I could feel whatever sadness came and be strong enough to deal with it
I let go of one-way friendships.
I made some better friends.
I took the most beautiful, calendar-worthy pictures of sunsets at the beach where I live.
I read the complete works of George Orwell.
I went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. (I know it's hard to believe I could have nothing to say for 10 whole days, but I did it!)
All in all - it was a very good year.
Plans for 2008
- be more consisitent about diet and exercise, lose weight. (How unoriginal is that?)
- decide on a major
-laugh a little more, enjoy life a little more
-seduce nvrgnbck (oops, that one was suppose to be a secret!)
Cog
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LouBelle
2007 has been a trying year:
I've had some good times: went on a boat cruise to bazaruto, took my mates from the U.K to see the wild life of South Africa, saw my cousin from the U.K, officially celebrated my first birthday, some ""bad-ish"" times cos they weren't really bad but just not that good.
The year was trying as we were advised that I boss was retiring and we would be getting a new. The woman that the employed has the capacity to drive anyone crazy - she can't make decisions - she's never been in advertising but is trying to tell me how to do my job - want to put ""systems"" in place - What systems? What are systems - she confused me with this one. She kept trying to do things that just left me speechless - to the point I went to Employment Attorneys. but that got sorted out eventually.
But I'm expecting good things for 2008.
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DJK
In the last 53 weeks I lost two friends, two brother in-laws, a sister and an uncle. Six funerals!! I hope in 2008 I don't have any funerals to attend.
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Dansk
Well, I guess I could bore the pants off everyone here when I talk about my illness again but, to be fair, 2007 and the previous two years had me in its grip and so, basically, I've actually lost three years of my life.
However, 2007 could be the year I'm actually cured, too!
2007 was when my daughter, Stephanie (Faundy) came out and admitted she was a Lesbian! I'm pleased for her because it means an enormous weight has been lifted off her shoulders and she can be herself now. She's studying English at university.
Our first grandchild, Jack, was born to my son, Karl, and his girlfriend, Sarah. Karl's at university studying musical production.
Our son, Dominic, continues to do well at college - even though he hates it
Claire and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary and look forward to the biggie next year. We hope to travel to Colorado!!
We visited Norm in Oslo earlier this year. What a truly fantastic guy. He's a great cook, too - and ladies, he's single!
We purchased our third border collie, Ronnie. What a fabulous dog he's turning out to be.
Kept up GREAT friendships here on JWD and hope to meet up with JWDers in April 2008 in Edinburgh.
2008 offers great hope of my health being normal again, enabling Claire and I to travel more - and so meet more of you lot!
Ian
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shell69
Abandoned hopeless and conditional family relationships. It hurt, it really did. But it had to be done.
Walked away, with my head heald high, from the cult that has kept me in its control for 37 years.
Moved house.
Had an emotional breakdown. Been through 6 months of counciling.
Son had sugery.
My dog died.
On a birghter note.
My beautifull and talented daughter left high school and stared collge which she's really enjoying. Through the wonder fo the internet I have been able to make contact with some of my extended family (nonJW), and am begining to build relationships with them.
My councilling is at an end.
I am looking to the future. XXXX
Much love to you all
Shell69
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Abandoned
How was 2007? Is calling it bittersweet too cliché? Yeah, probably, but it’s the most accurate. 2006 ended with my being sexually harassed at work which left me in a rather deep depression which bubbled over into the beginning of 2007. The job where it happened was a mess. The head boss didn't know what to believe and at least tried to perform an impartial investigation, but my immediate supervisor made it very clear that she didn't care whether I was speaking the truth or not, she was siding with her friend. I should have quit then and there but I wasn't going to let them win so I stuck it out. And out. And out. I watched as the guy who harassed me was moved to another location and finally quit. And I was glad he left. Sure, maybe I was being petty, but I knew from deep within that I had to stand up for myself and seeing it bare fruit gave me immense satisfaction. My supervisor never did come to like me however and so I ended up quitting too, in October.
That was the bad. Here's the good. In March or so, I met a lady online who had some issues with honesty. That hurt but I still list it as part of the good as I proved to myself that I'm still capable of loving. It was very life-affirming. I stood up for myself again when I realized I was being played and ended, officially, that tumultuous relationship. Then, somewhere around the end of May, a friend of mine came into work and told me that he had signed us both up for Open Mic night at Goonies Comedy club. My first reaction was, "Are you mental? Get the H*ll out of here!" But, the more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded. So, with him telling me what a wuss I was, I finally acquiesced and agreed to get up on stage. And I had a frigging blast. OMG. For the next twenty-one weeks, I got up every Thursday night and performed five or ten minutes of material. At first, I was telling jokes I'd heard from other people, but after being set down and talked to by a touring comic about how tacky it was to "steal" other people's jokes, I set down and started building my own routine. I have about fifteen to twenty minutes of original comedy at this point.
Doing comedy did wonders for my self-esteem as well. A number of girls from where I work, Kaleigh, Alyssa, Nina, and Laura, heard about what I was doing and decided to make Thursday night, girls night out at Goonies. It was so cool having my own "entourage" in the audience. Kaleigh and her boyfriend moved back to South Dakota in July and Alyssa went away to college in August and that spelt the end to that special group.
As my competence and self-esteem grew at the comedy club, though, the bullshit from my idiotic supervisor at work increased. Her negative energy got to the point to where I found myself blocked from a writing stand-point. Other than a few new jokes each week and a couple poems here and there, I was completely dried up creatively. That was the main reason that I finally decided to get rid of that crappy job and stick with just one. Plus, November was getting close and November is National Novel Writing Month. I've participated in this wonderful event since 2004, and one thing I've learned about NaNoWriMo is that it gets my creative juices flowing, in torrents.
So, I quit one job and cut back my hours to fifteen a week at the other and prepared for a month of creative joy. What I didn't realize is that I am a lot more productive as a writer when I'm busy. Having so much time off to write made me way to lackadaisical and I started out slower than ever before. By the end of the first week, traditionally, I'm up to at least ten thousand words but this time, I barely had seven thousand and I really didn't like my story. Then, around the tenth or eleventh of November, I decided to add something totally insane to my story. I created an unstable, assault weapon wielding gerbil by the name of Binky. He had some issues, but he was so much fun to write, that I started digging my story again - big time. Before I knew it, I'd made up the deficit of words I'd allowed to build and pulled ahead. I had three disparate storylines going and each was progressing nicely.
The coolest thing about our brains or at least what I like the best about my brain is its ability to take unrelated events and tie them together. That's what my brain did with my three separate story lines. Binky ended up getting in a fight with Ger, his live in girlfriend, over his violent tendencies. After the fight, he ended up going to town looking for mischief. He was planning on doing something to really p*ss her off, but ended up just drinking himself into a stupor and passing out in grassy section of a nearby graveyard (although in his condition, he didn't realize it wasn't just a park).
Him passing out in the graveyard, connected two of the three legs of my story as that was where one of my characters was being held incommunicado. When he discovered this, he set into motion the events that brought all three lines of the story together. I know I'm being vague as I describe the story as I plan to clean it up and I don't want to give too much of it away. But my point in mentioning this is that ditching that dysfunctional job, something which deep down I knew I had to do, allowed me to regain my creativity in a BIG way and I discovered that I was able to write again.
So, as December 2007 lumbers ever forward toward its end, I am in a lot better place mentally and emotionally then where I was when the year started. I didn't reach all of the goals I set for myself, but I did reach quite a few and most importantly, I learned that good things happen when I choose to take care of myself.