in the last ten years, what is your biggest accomplishment?

…

that question today interrupted my fortnightly cleaning, mail responding, and general filing adventures that i call “sundays at home”. i’ve been making an effort to use my sabbaths for something different than my usual “unscheduled time” – no sleeping in until noon, and no getting up and frittering away my morning on surfing random websites, watching tv, or playing video games. cooking, cleaning, working on bikes, going outside, playing the didj, reading a motherfucking book, even writing in my blog.

but that question brought me pause even in the midst of my light-to-no organization. it stared back at me from the questionnaire attached to the invitation to my 10th year high school reunion, surrounded by such mundane details as married (nope!), kids (nope!), and contact information.

what is my biggest accomplishment in the last ten years. the past decade! what have i done with myself? i briefly pondered what my classmates might have answered to this peculiar test question: graduating college, getting married, landing a big job, climbing a mountain, buying a house? what adventures of mine go beyond mere braggary and into the realm of accomplishment?

after giving it some consideration, i came up with this list of biggest accomplishments:

staying alive, getting some degrees, growing a kickass goatee.

that of course is just an abbreviated list, the full list exceeded the length provided. here is the current list, to be amended later as i accomplish more:

staying alive, getting some degrees, growing a kickass goatee, learning how to cook, learning how to love, having my heart broken, learning how to drink a shot, learning how to make people laugh, learning how to ride a bike, learning how to drive a car, learning how to program in c, camping in the mountains, going to greece, going to canada, moving to seattle, learning how to fix a toilet, paying my own rent, getting a job, quitting a job, taking a summer off, making out while sitting on the porch on a warm summer’s evening, watching movies in foreign languages, speaking a little german, making tiny huge mistakes, taking the train, spending a summer in fresno, playing d&d with the same folks for over a decade, switching to os x, being the first of my friends to have only a cell phone, living in a big house full of guys and making it work, living with a married couple and their insane cat, building a bicycle, building a computer, building a workbench, swimming in two oceans and several lakes and rivers, living.