Seminal moments in your life

[omicron]

And before Jakester can say anything, I mean it in this way: Highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development.

Have there ever been moments in your life when if you had made a simple choice, things would be TOTALLY different? You know, it's a common theme in the movies and stuff, but does it actually occur in normal life?

I can think of one such moment. I was trying to decide between two local colleges. I chose one because I didn't have to write an essay on the entrance application. Had I taken the other school, I wouldn't have meet any of my friends, most of whom I am still in touch with. And one of whom gave me one of my first jobs out of college and in the technology field. Which led to my friend and I heading to Dallas to meet some people, one of which my friend ended up marrying. Which led to our company finally closing and me packing up and moving to Dallas for good. Etc etc etc.

Sure, things probably would have turned out much the same if had chosen the other path, since I would have stayed in the same area and still would have hung out with alot of my old friends, but you never now. I may have met the love of my life there. I would have missed some of the great times I had in college and post-college years, but I would imagine I would have had similar times(getting drunk and bar hopping are common college activities :) ).

I think that life is a series of small day-to-day decisions that gradually lead you down the path of life, but I am sure there's definitely big ones that cause radically divergent paths.

Discuss. :D

Omi

[Nostromo]

Absolutely. I had no clue what I was doing with my life only that I didn't like it. One day - while on the job - I picked up a hitcher. Turns out his company was hiring and he set me up for an interview. I landed my dream job and have never had a boring day in 30 years.
N:D

[Space Tycoon]

I seem to recall my first nocturnal emmission.

I was positively awash in seminality.





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[Jakester]

Damn you, omi!

[Senormac]

I know I've been away for a long time....but I do check in on the gang once in awhile.....just to see what the hot topic is ....LOL. This thread motivated me enough to post.

It was 1980 ....I was in a garage band .....WE ROCKED!!!!! I mean we had some kind of magic.....we had connections.....we knew some dudes high up at CBS records.....we had plenty of smoke.....we were dedicated....our core was tight....and 3 piece bands rock.

We just scored a recording slot at a So. Cal. recording studio through K-ROQ radio station....106.7 FM. We met at the station and rapped with Jed the Fish....(don't even know if he is there anymore....this was 1980 peeps). We, the drummer, guitar player and me....(bass and singer).....had pretty good temp jobs.....but jammed daily for 3 - 4 hours. I'm sure Rodney would have had our first release on his show......he was always into the new punk, alternative, and new wave bands........and played a bunch of new music on Sunday nights......

So, anyways, I'm sitting in the backyard of a friend of the bands house one night.....while the party raged inside.....and (without going into all the minute details).....an invisible presence came near to me and spoke to me. He was clothed in GLORY and was surrounded in HOLINESS and LOVE.....

I remember so clearly that night.....my heart errupted in JOY....and a voice spoke to me....and said...." If you will not believe in God....you are going to die" !!!! But it wasn't like a threat.......it was like an invitation!!! It was like a chance to see, hear, and feel that their was something outside of my tiny little existance...with all my goals and ambitions.......and it was THE CREATOR. That I had a chance to accept Him. That I had a chance to alter my thinking and include HIM in my plans....to alter the way I lived....and consider HIM. Its a very different world to be alone .....going forward and trying to make the best of this world .....all alone....whatever it takes.....Than to go forward with the concept that there is a God who is interested in me....and what am I gonna do about it?

So I came away from that night with an understanding that .....THE CREATOR loved me.....

Why???? I don't know....maybe cuz my grandparents prayed for me so much......and couldn't get my parents to respond. But dang....I'm tellin ya....I responded!!!! There was nothing like it.....no feeling...no emotional high....no drug.....no sex.....nothing that can compare.....to a meeting with JESUS.......He is all !! He is alive!!! He knows how to touch us in the depths of our hearts and souls.....

Why He doesn't just do it for everybody.....I don't know. But maybe its just cuz some people need it.....and some people just need to hear somebody else say....He is real !!!

So, anyways....I joined a church and started pursuing HIM. And church fucked me up in alot of ways....cuz it doesn't truely represent HIM. But it tries. But man ....church leadership..... just gets in the way. So anyways......I just wanted to say, that that moment ....more than any other, changed the course of my life. Ya, I quit the band.....sex, drugs and rock and roll.....just don't seem to be what JESUS had planned for people who wanted to be HIS friends. LOL....and maybe I've been a little harsh over the years around here....sorry. It's never an argument about rules to me....but its always an argument about whether HE is or not.

So, I'm now a certified JESUS FREAK.......and I just wish everybody knew HIM and believed in HIM. That would make me happy. Maybe I'll post a bit more around here....its been a rough couple of years, and I'm not sure how deep I should go into talking about it all to the cyber world at large. Anyways, with love......Senormac

We now return you to your regularly broadcast stations.

[fastcar]

Good for you mac.


Now, damnit, make funny pictures with beer and gnome.

[Monic]

Now, damnit, make funny pictures with beer and gnome.

I second that! Where is our next adventure! :D

[kah]

When I was a junior in high school, I talked with the Navy recruiters when they came to my school. I couldn't enlist until the summer before my senior year, so I anxiously awaited summer vacation. I went right to their office after school ended for the year, and started getting myself signed up. I scored a 99 on my entrance exam, rated A1 for health, and chose diesel engine mechanics as my field to enter with a 6 year active enlistment, and 2 years of inactive reserve. I was enlisted into the Delayed Entry Program that summer. I was required to attend recruit meetings once a month until I was ready to ship out, July 14 of 1998. I was hanging out with my recruiters twice or three times a week. I seriously considered entering the EOD program during boot camp, so my recruiter, who was EOD himself, helped me train. I cut off a foot and a half of hair, and looked forward to the day when I could LEAVE.

Then I met a guy. I didn't want to leave him, so I got myself kicked out of school (ok, there was more involved than that, but this was a big part of it), and therefore the DEP. We spent four years together, are still friends now, and hey- I'm not in Iraq. I think that's a pretty seminal moment.

Of course, I think any time Jake and I are in the same thread, he is having a seminal moment:smirk:.

[Jakester]

Any time I look at that picture of you and the inflatable thing is a seminal moment.

[fastcar]

Ok, this one isn't about me. If you happen to have read my baseball story, this one is about Joe, the son of my Dad's cousin....who also happens to be named Joe.

Joe had graduated from college and was working for a company out of Massachusettes. He started dating this girl. Being the son of an oral surgeon and having a very good school career, it's not like Joe was hurting for money. However, this girl's parents were loaded. After a year or two, they were engaged.

At this time, the soon to be in laws began to object to Joe's life. His clothes, not nice enough. They bought him a new wardrobe. His apartment was good enough, so they moved him into their guest house.

A few months before the nuptials, they decided tha his job wasn't high profile, so they pulled strings and got him a higher paying job. It also involved a transfer to New York City. Joe felt this was the last straw. He had enough of their crap and called off the wedding.

The high paying job he turned down was in the World Trade Center. he would have been there on 9/11.




Never feel obligated to settle. Sometimes the choices that seem the hardest and the most selfish are the best ones.

[Senormac]

So I guess the girl wasn't in love with him enough to say I'm going with him parents........thats too bad. Dang meddling inlaws. My inlaws are awesome! They live 1000 miles away :D .....but really, I like them, cuz they have hobbies. They do interesting stuff......and never try to make us do anything....My dad in law loves to restore old Poniacs. He's got some beauties too. His prize is a 59 Pontiac Catalina Convertable. He gets to drive it in the parades with some babe in the back seat waving and looking beautiful. Hes a card.

[fastcar]

Just one of those overprivileged people who don't have enough individuality. Can't think for themself and let their parents run their life. It's a shame to think of all that preparation going to waste.


I was with my wife for 5 years before we got engaged. Then we planned the wedding for 16 months after that. It's a hell of an undertaking, but I wouldn't have gone through with it, if I doubted in my mind that I wouldn't be able to click with her entire family. It's just one of those things. When you live 1000 miles away, it's a lot easier to deal with in laws. When you live roughly 1 mile away, you tend to see each other a lot.

My wife's family have always been super nice to me and have helped us out a lot. In turn, we try to do what we can for them. I come over and help get stuff out of the attic, help around the house if it's something big, and we just scrubbed down their porch over the weekend. Of course, her mom is a renal cell stage IV cancer survivor, who just had to have some of her pancreas taken out in April and her dad had a hip replacement in 2003 and just had a part of his prostate taken out over Father's day. It's been fun, let me tell ya.

[Senormac]

I was with my wife for 5 years before we got engaged. Then we planned the wedding for 16 months after that.

Ha ha. Just shows how different we all are. I was aquainted with my wife for maybe a year in a large group setting, but not close. We dated for 3 months and then I asked her to get married......she giggled....:D . We got married in the livingroom of her house and I moved out of my apartment and into the house. We were pretty poor....so I drew the invitations myself and printed out a bunch at Kinko's. It was the most amazing wedding ever!!! We left the house with 50 people in it....and drove to Victoria BC.

[Asonokirk V 2.0]

I had a "seminal" moment recently, and it came as a result of watching a documentary about the making of Star Wars. Empire of Dreams.

As silly as that sounded, that documentary showed me what one can do if one just gets off their lazy butts and does it. Life is about doing, and the biggest secret is how simple and easy it is to do whatever it is you want to do.

You just do it. By that I mean take all of the steps, and make all of the effort necessary to complete or do whatever you want.

For example:
A friend of mine told me about an idea he had several years ago, and would bring it up from time to time since then.
The idea was for a long story arc involving humans in space forming colonies on planetary bodies in our solar system, and then being left to fend for themselves after the Earth gets destroyed.

It is a great idea if developed properly, and I and he have begun the process. We've created a large outline of the entire arc, hired consultants (NASA, conceptual art), and are writing episodes for a TV series based on the concept. The episodes we write are short stories that will be gathered into a novel over the next year or so. We've both attended workshops to learn how and what we need to do, and are working slowly towards putting this together. I've covered the legal aspects, and have it pre-registered for copyright.

The point is that it is much easier to do these things than you might think. And fun, too. I suggest that whatever it is you love, start doing it. Maybe you'll find something that you just love doing, and have that epiphany I had when I realized how easy it is to make something cool.

[bigfras81]

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