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#26

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 8:30am

I would have to say the moon landing. Given the technology of the 60s, what NASA accomplished was incredible.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson
#28

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 9:34am

I would also go with 911. The world as we knew it, would never be the same. On a more personal level, the passing of my Father in 2005 and my Mother's diagnosis with Alzheimer's (having to go into a nursing home) shortly after. My core family, as I knew it, would never be the same.
#29

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 9:47am

^ I had a similar personal event in 2009, ArtMan.

I lost both of my parents to separate illnesses less than six months apart. We were very close. My dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer just six weeks after my mother passed away. After my father died on Thanksgiving weekend, I just went numb. And though it sounds (even to me) like I'm making this sh*t up, my partner's father died of a heart attack on the exact same day. We lost our fathers within eight hours of each other. I don't even know what the odds are of that "luck" happening. But it did.

So, together, we went from four parents down to one in less than six months. Two on the same day.

I've never been the same. I'm on the other side of the looking glass now. It's a different world.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#30

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 9:59am

Mine is having the opportunity to march 6 years of drum corps. I aged out last year and I can say that thoes six summers has made me into the person I am today.

Updated On: 6/29/13 at 09:59 AM

#31

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 10:01am

I'm so sorry to hear about that. When I hear from people who tell me they haven't spoken or seen their parents in years, it makes me sad. There are examples of disownment, etc. But many tell me they don't have the time or interest. I tell them, once they are gone, they are gone. My mother, "luckily" is still alive. I visit her six days a week. She knows my name, no one else. But I don't think she knows me as her son, just someone who is loving to her and looks after her.
#32

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 10:19am

My mother died of dementia and emphysema, so I know what it's like to watch someone you love "fade away" slowly, day by day. That helpless feeling you get, seeing it happen. My dad's illness was so fast, I barely had time to think.

This probably sounds weird (and wrong), but after they both died, I went through a period of being envious of others who weren't close to their parents. Because when their mothers and fathers died, it wasn't so devastating.

Of course I wouldn't trade my close relationships with them for anything in the world. And my "temporary jealousy" went away when my own painful loss found at least some perspective.

But they were my mentors, my friends, my biggest supporters, my sounding boards, my inspiration. And I will never know that kind of unconditional love again.

So, while it wasn't a single event, the loss of my parents in 2009 changed my life forever.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#33

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 10:48am

My great grandmother was diagnosed with dementia about a year months before her passing. Apparently, I look EXACTLY like my late great grandfather and my great grandmother couldn't tell the difference.

I've never been close to my father, but he cut things off after I came out. He told me that I wasn't a part of his family. That was nine years ago. I haven't spoken to him sense. I do not miss him. I have tried to reach out to him to no avail. I've done my part. If he reaches out to me, I'll reconsider my disdain for him, but until then...
#34

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 11:04am

Jungle red, sorry to hear that. At least you made the effort. In the past, both my parents made some ugly comments towards me, concerning my sexuality. I really don't think they meant it. But the words still affect me to this day. That doesn't mean they didn't love me. But ironically, the one who looked and has look after them in their declining years, was not the straight side of the family, but the "queer'.

Updated On: 6/30/13 at 11:04 AM

#35

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 11:10am

The death of a parent can definitely be one of the biggest events in anyone's life.

Peace to you both.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#36

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 11:27am

My brother's suicide last year. It fundamentally altered my entire family. I have (had) three brothers, but he was the one I was closest to. He was my favorite. It was also the first -- close, unexpected loss I'd experienced. I'd lost a grandfather before then, but it's not at all the same.
#37

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 5:17pm

Just like Brave Sir Robin, I was in elementary school when 9/11 happened. I did not understand the full impact of it. I would have to see the election and re-election of Obama was probably this biggest historic event I witnessed. The recent events of this past week with SCOTUS, DOMA, and Prop 8 will also be things that I never forget. It made me realize that we are slowly moving in the right direction, and I am so glad I get to witness the progress being made.

As far as personal events go, there are three very big events that have shaped who I am today. The first happened when I was in 6th grade. I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis (a chronic autoimmune disorder). For two years I underwent various types of treatment ranging from monthly IV infusion to long term rounds to prednisone that made me gain about 50 pounds. After two years of this, I decided enough was enough, and I underwent a complete colectomy. I suffered permanent nerve damage from the surgery, and the recovery period was a living hell, but looking back, it was the best decision I made. My health will never be the same, but I am happy and healthy.

The second event happened in 2010. One of my family's closest family friends passed away very unexpectedly after a short bought with colon cancer. This woman was a mother to three children (who I grew up with) and was the picture of perfect health. She was a fitness instructor, and never touched a drop of alcohol. This woman was my second mother. She was there when I was born, and she was my mom's best friend. Seeing someone I loved so much suffer so much and deteriorate so quickly was one of those moments that made me realize just how short life can be, and we never know how much time we have left with someone.

The third event is probably the biggest personal event for me. It was when I finally decided to come out and be true to myself. I have always known deep down that I was gay, and my parents knew (they are incredibly supportive), but I grew up going to Catholic school and never felt like I could be honest about that part of who I am. About a year ago (June 2012), I decided it was time for me to stop hiding the truth. I am a college student at a liberal university, and I realized I did not have to hide it anymore. I kind of just slowly started letting my friends know one by one when the time was right. None of them made a big deal out of it, and they were all so supportive. It made me realize how many wonderful people I have in my life. On Monday I turn 21, and I can't believe how much I have changed in just one year. Looking back on my birthday last year, I was still someone who was unsure and terrified to be open. Now I am happy and comfortable with who I am, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Sorry I kind of wrote a novel here. I guess this thread just really got me thinking!
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#38

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 5:48pm

I can't really give one answer.

Big picture, the Internet, AIDs, 9/11 all are up there.

Personally, I have to say the riots after the Rodney King Verdict and the Reginald Denny beating continue to haunt me. After the not-guilty verdict, I wanted to go protest, and a black friend told me to stay home, that it would not be safe for me, regardless of whether my heart was in the right place... I thought he was being over protective, but he was right. Seeing an innocent man nearly beaten to death on live TV, calling 911 and begging them to help him, and then seeing people jumping into the fray to save him, the inability (or willingness/possible incitement of the initial flash point) of the LAPD to "protect and serve", watching neighborhoods and livelihoods go up in flames, seeing the national guard in my neighborhood, and then hearing stories of how life in the neighborhoods most impacted had not really improved since the Watts Riots ... it changed my perspective on many things.

In some way, the assassinations of Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin and John Lennon had similar impacts on me.

#39

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 6:13pm

On a purely personal level, it was leaving my comfort zone and moving 800 miles from home to attend graduate school. I challenged myself in ways I'd never done before, and met the first true friends of my life.



"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Updated On: 6/29/13 at 06:13 PM

#40

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 6:15pm

Started really when my Dad had a heart attack in 2003 and when both of my paternal grandparents had been diagnosed with dementia. Was in a deep depression between then to about 2005 which meant the darkest parts were in 2004. I had been bullied to the point where I stopped going to classes and got creative in how to play hooky within the school walls, stopped paying attention in those classes, almost never did any work until the 11th hour, gained a lot of weight and almost got sent to summer school. It was not until I finally responded to a dirty trick from bullies (that I later found out I was not alone in getting the treatment from these girls) tried to pull on me that I just came out with every anxiety I was feeling to one teacher and a guidance counselor. Not to go into specifics, it was a trick the villains in Heathers pulled on vulnerable students, a movie that I did not see until 2005 which was a pretty cathartic experience when I felt long removed from that place they put me in. The evil girls in question I never really saw again until I was late in high school (I have no idea if the district just decided to separate me from them in classes or anything, I never asked) and it was watching others read out their short fiction stories for that one teacher who had about 3 different class periods on it. They were still so oddly stunted in that phase of thinking the world revolved around them. I only got in good standing with just one of them, and I believe the moment her mother found out had her never hang out with those other girls again, who copped and apologized for what happened (for which I just refer to her as the Heather McNamara of the group).
#41

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/29/13 at 11:49pm

Here we are discussing this and Gawker runs this essay about the AIDS epidemic. The Author he discusses "Dave" I always felt like was a real friend of mine. I read his first book right after I moved to Chicago and I recall it as the first "AIDS novel" I had ever read. I bought it in Chicago's legendary not-just-gay bookstore Unabridged and I recommended it to EVERYONE.

Anyway, I lost a few friends to AIDS in those days and this essay captures that time, that crisis, that ****storm.
It starts with a nosebleed
#42

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/30/13 at 2:23am

On a personal level, it was when I was eight and upon learning that Santa wasn't real asked "Well, if he isn't real, why should I believe that there is a magical man in the sky controlling the world?" I didn't think much of this realization, and thankfully, my already very agnostic family respected my opinions and became atheists as well. And I was only eight years old! In later years when I realized my sexuality, not having religion be a problem made my life so much easier. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I were still Catholic.

It's very interesting to read all of these responses. What's really sad, though, is that I know that much of my generation (currently in high school) seems to already be forgetting the AIDS crisis. Even my LGBT friends have no idea the extent of the horrors and tragedies that happened. I even know some people my age who I'm sure don't realize that there was every any correlation to AIDS and the gay community. I don't entirely blame them--when we learned about HIV and AIDS in health class, we weren't taught about the history of the disease. I would not have known how awful the time was were it not for my exposure to The Normal Heart, Angels in America, and the brilliant documentary How to Survive a Plague. It's frightening how quickly a society seems to forget.
#43

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/30/13 at 7:06pm

On a national level: 9/11, hands down. Seeing the world change, and your perspective of the world change, within hours, is still mind-blowing.

On a personal level: when I transferred to a college four and a half hours away from home almost four years ago. That doesn't seem very far, but it was the first time I'd ever gotten to be away from my parents' home by myself. I learned very quickly how sheltered I'd truly been, and in just two years at said college, I became the person I am today. I realized I didn't have to be ashamed of who I was and what I liked, just because my family didn't agree. And I had freedom for the first time: if I wanted to go grocery shopping or go to the library, then I could. I didn't have to ask when would be a good time, or if it was okay to go. And back then, that was mind-blowing for me. To have that choice. On the flip side, those realizations made any periods where I had to go back home -for Christmas break, summer break- very hard, because my family did not want to accept 'the new me.' They hated who I was, to an extent, and even now, I still occasionally resent visiting them because they don't like who I am. And the thing is, I'm not anything radical, or a lesbian, or anything remotely controversial. I have my own opinions, I'm a critical thinker, and I respect the opinions of others, whether I agree with them or not. But my family does not want to accept that. I've been called selfish and manipulative by my own mother because of this. Just because I don't instantly agree with their opinions and beliefs. But I digress.

In spite of all that, it really is hard to put into a few words just how much those two years at college meant, and still mean, to me. I'm still learning from the lessons I got there, and I'm still accepting it's okay to be me.
#44

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 6/30/13 at 8:19pm

interesting topic. Fascinating to see the personal and the societal events. Yes to most of them - 9/11, AIDS, civil rights.

Societal :One of the things that hit me hardest was Bobby Kennedy's assassination. He'd changed so much from what he'd been- his father's son- and become a real possibility for a better future. Then he was gone and there seemed like there was never going to be a better future again. Who know what the world might have been like if he'd lived, been elected and put into place the policies of inclusion that he now embraced? What if's r killahs.

Personally, I had an abortion and learned i could never trust anyone but myself. Ever. <3
#45

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 7/1/13 at 9:32am

I would have to join the many who said 9/11. I was 15, a sophomore in high school in New Jersey, and what happened on September 11th just hammered home how stupid and naive I was. Honestly, in tandem with the 2000 Presidential Election, 9/11 gave me a crash course in politics and domestic and international relations that I sometimes wish I never had to get.

Personally, I feel like my life is going to be defined by the very long stretch of under and unemployment I went through after graduating from college. It was the lowest I have ever felt in my entire life and I know it's going to take me a long time to fully build myself back up.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain. -Kad
#46

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 7/1/13 at 11:46am

On a bigger scale, the invention of the internet and 9/11. I doubt I would have ever met most of the people I have without the internet. Or even done a lot of things I have done, as odd as that sounds.

I was only a high school junior when 9/11 happened, but we were glued to the tv the entire school day. And I remember seeing the 2nd tower fall. That and the smoke coming out of the building are definitely the scariest things I have ever seen. I feel haunted by this too because in one of my classes a couple of days prior, we were talking about the future or the world. I was just thinking about things going on and how society had become that I thought the world would get worse in the future. And poof, 2 days later the worst thing I have ever witnessed happened.

And on a happier note and more personal level, I think my graduations from both high school and college are big events for me, personally. I was diagnosed with a learning disability as a child, so school was never easy for me. To keep this short, in high school things started getting better. I actually managed to get myself declassified from having a learning disability, meaning I didn't need to be in special education classes anymore or have people working on an IEP for me anymore and having my parents come in for meetings to decide my classes for me.

I graduated from high school and got into a 4 year college. That was another thing my guidance counselor told me I probably should have thought against doing at first. I'm glad I didn't listen to him because I wanted to challenge myself and see where I could go. If I didn't get in, I would have been happy starting off at the community college. But, after struggling a tiny bit in my first year of college, I graduated from there in 4 years. I guess from where I came from, it seems like a huge accomplishment.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005 "You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy. Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
#47

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 7/1/13 at 12:19pm

The liberation of the Eastern Bloc (condensed in my mind into the images of the Berlin Wall being torn down) and the end of apartheid (and the images of Nelson Mandela being freed from prison). Both of those cancers on the world had been there my entire life and, regardless of personal hopes, I honestly expected that they would be there forever. I can't imagine how it felt to the people living in those countries to see the sun after living so long covered in clouds.
#49

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 7/1/13 at 1:54pm

The moon landing. An extraordinary advancement for our little species. Now largely forgotten or devalued by conspiracy theorists.

Personally, unable to choose just one event. Life is too complicated, even for an EW-type "Top 100"!
#50

What is the single biggest event in your lifetime?

Posted: 7/1/13 at 2:13pm

Jack Kennedy was killed November 22, 1963. I was 13 and in the 8th grade.

It is a generational thing, and for many of my age that is the day America lost its childhood. At high school reunions we are together again, and we all shared that terrible day.

Nothing has been the same. This November it will be 50 years, and we can remember those four awful days like they were last month rather than half a century ago.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

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