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Thread: Your Best Year?

  1. #1
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Your Best Year?

    I was sitting in the Trader Joe's parking lot in my Prius and my mind wandered to when I bought it, and I realized that in a certain sense, that year--2007--was a Golden Age for me.

    Caveat: I know that today is also a Golden Age--and that every day presents itself with miracles. I do not mean to get overly morose or nostalgic with this post, or minimize my gratitude for today, but only to recall a time in my life that floods me with warmth.

    It was 2007. I had just attended my daughter's college graduation, as well as my the graduation of my son, who had dropped out of high school and who was now giving the valedictory speech at his college.

    I had just been made Vice President of Research, marking a quadrupling of my salary over less than 10 years, after having transitioned to a career in market research at age 46, releasing me from the near-poverty of the prior years.

    The next day the entire family, including my MIL, was flying to Scotland for 10 days--a trip I worked 9 years for in terms of saving up travel points.

    My son, daughter and I had just left a Memorial Day parade in which my DH was marching as a bagpiper for a local Pipes and Drums group. I was driving home and passed a Toyota dealership and just on a whim pulled in. My kids were now done with college, my daughter was "inheriting" the VW Beetle we had shared for the previous 4 years, and it was time for me. I saw a white Prius in the parking lot. I checked out the features, and in 10 minutes I had given the salesman a deposit and told him to hold it until I got back from Scotland.

    As I mentioned above, I still have that car and expect to have it for several more years--it has 113,000 miles and has served me well. That car is wrapped in the memories of May/June 2007. I feel so lucky in so many ways.

    Does anyone else have a special time or a special year they'd like to share?
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  2. #2
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    What a lovely thread!
    Mine is quite different. It was 2017 and I was so totally content and at peace. I think that a certain time becomes special because it follows some very stressful episodes.

    I had finally made it through all the mental, emotional and physical changes to solo life after my DH's passing 4-5 years earlier; my lovely little new house had been a perfect cocoon for me and the landscaping I had designed was growing well; I had regained my confidence after clearing out a lifetime of mental baggage; wonderful friendships were stable for the first time in my life as I knew that I was "home" and staying put; family members had worked through challenges due to the 2008 downturn and were thriving so of no concern; I realized that I had enough resources to be comfortable with some travel, theatre and other special joys that I had waited a long time to do; I was healthy and active and free to be me. All felt just good and right. That feeling has grown these past few months in 2018 which is kind of wonderful.
    BTW, I have a Prius V but it is a sea green and I expect to have it for the next 10 years until the driverless cars take over.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  3. #3
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Nice, razz. So glad you've found some equilibrium, joy and peace following what must have been a terrible time.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  4. #4
    Yppej
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    1997 when I bought my own home and, broke, spent my summer vacation going to a different nearby state park or forest every day with my three year old son, who was the perfect age to appreciate simple pleasures.

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    "Call no man happy until he is dead." I'll wait until then to pick a best year .

    I'm looking forward to having a tough choice.

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    Senior Member Ultralight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by razz View Post
    What a lovely thread!
    +1

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    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    2000.

    Separated from my first wife and got to engage in healthy adult relationships again. Had a chance to rethink a lot of things (almost everything!) I had just kind of assumed before then. Lived by myself largely on my own terms. Still was young enough to not be exhausted by the process or to think that it was all downhill from there.

    Yeah, there were a lot of emotional wrenches that year. But I got to take the first steps on a journey that has taken me to the best time of my life. I won't forget it.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

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    Senior Member Ultralight's Avatar
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    Tough but fun question.

    Maybe it was 2002. I moved out of my hometown, transferred to a university, was living in the big city (Toledo, haha). I was writing songs and playing guitar with my best friend. We'd ride our bikes aimlessly around campus and the city. I delved deep into campus activism, made close friends immediately, and I enjoyed my classes and the intellectual stimuli that I had never known. It was a beautiful blossoming time for me.

    2007 was pretty good too. After a long illness, I recovered my health, and I rang in the New Year in Lisbon, Portugal. I was still married back then to my ex-wife and things were going well. She and I had two girlfriends on the side we frequently enjoyed. I was Mr. Cool Guy in graduate school. I had a good set of friends too. I was in really good shape, tan too, and I lounged around the pool most days from April to October.

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    Hmm...probably around 2007 too. We were still firmly ensconced in our life in Austin before everything became fancy and gentrified. Good neighbors, good jobs, happy fixing up our house, starting all my gardens there...

  10. #10
    Senior Member Sad Eyed Lady's Avatar
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    I have no idea. There has always been something special to me about the year 1969, but to say it was the best of my life I don't know. It is so nice reading others who have definite time periods they can point to and say why.

    BTW, I too have a Prius! Prius C. I am hoping it will be my last car too. We bought it about 7 months before my husband passed away. Not a lot of miles on it as I have been in a sort of inertia since then in many ways.
    "Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in the midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free." Leonard Cohen

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