The first life changing experience I had was about 5 years ago. My best friend passed away. He was like my brother that I never had. We did everything together, he was my ski partner. He passed away by a very sudden and tragic accident. It left his family and friends destroyed.
I, myself was DESTROYED and fell into a massive depression for about 2 years. I didn't ski for those whole 2 years. It just didn't seen right without him. I learned quite a lot during that time. Life is very very fragile, and can be taken from you in a blink of an eye. Live it up to the fullest, and make every day count. The odd thing about skiing, is that I went to ski a few years later and somehow lost my ski boots. How the hell do you lose ski boots? My mom thinks that Mike took them with him.
The second life changing experience I had came about 4 years ago. My mother got diagnosed with breast cancer. She had surgery to remove the tumor, and did radiation therapy. The cancer went into remission and all was well. Then about 2 years ago my mom noticed a lump on her leg, in the crease where your leg and your hip connect. (hip flexor). She went to the doctor and he told her it was just a fatty cyst and not to worry about it. Well, a few months later it got bigger and began to bother her, so they decided to do surgery to remove it. When the doctor opened my mom up, he saw that it was not a fatty cyst, that it was in fact cancer. My mom got diagnosed with nonhodgkins lymphoma. It was devastating to our family. I couldn't understand why this was happening. I felt as if god had a magnifying glass on us and was burning us like ants.
Well my mom is a strong strong women did chemo, and managed to pull through. I don't know too many people who had 2 completely different cancers, who are hear to talk about it today.
The 3rd life changing experience I had has come a whole. The economy. I am 29 and I work for my familys business. When I finished college at 23 I was making a good $70k a year. Now I have to work 80 hours a week, and two jobs to clear $50k. My parents lost almost all of their money, and to see them at the age of 60, in the position they are in now, breaks my heart. I work my my parents and get to see the pain in their eyes every day over finances.
The last and final life changing experience for me is what I am going through now. I am seperated from my wife currently. I have fallen into another depression, and have lost 15 pounds. (I am not fat, and don't need to lose ANY weight). I feel soo lost right now, I don't know what is right or wrong anymore. I don't know if my beliefs thoughts are correct. I don't know who or what to believe. I stay up all night thinking of my wife, and how I let her down. So i don't know if this is life changing right now, but I do know whatever my future holds will be a change, as I can't continue living like this.
I am everybody's whipping boy, I can't do anything right for my wife, my dad tells me to shut the fuck up at least once a day at the office, my mom flips out at me and screams at a snap of a finger, and my sister is a bitch who is more interested in what she is doing tonight, then her whole family.
I am going to try to stay positive, as that's all I can do. I try to stay positive most of the time, but there are times when I have nervous breakdowns. I have never been on any medication in my entire life, and now I am on 3.
I hope there is light at the end of the tunnel.
