How will you be remembered... is it what you hope for?

I enjoyed reading all of these posts, and I'd like to respond in general, but I'm sure a few folks will take a pesonal skew to it. I too was an average student in high school, I didn't care much for it...until I took an elective class called Residential Design. I fell in love with it and chased architecture hard. It got me into college, and it got me into one of the best Schools of Architecture in the nation. I was a bit younger than my cohorts when I graduated, a result of taking super max credits for the first two years, and finishing what could have been a five year program in 3 and a half. I got a great, high paying job right out of school--back when there was a market for architecture and building. I had a great apartment in a great city, a brand new car, and money to burn, which I did with reckless abandon. I never gave thought to how I would be remembered or if I was doing anything worth value to anyone other myself. I lost touch with all my old friends from home, most of my family, and I never had time to go home to visit. I couldn't be bothered with all of that...I was working 80 hours a week sometimes more, life was a constant whirlwind. I got a voice mail call one evening, that my grandmother had died. I got the call 9 hours after it was made. I left immediatly for home, even though there was no funeral planned...I just felt like I needed to get home. I realized in a split second that nothing I had around me was worth what I had sacrificed to get it. It was a 13 hour drive home that due to the worst snowstorm I have ever driven in, the trip took me 26 hours of driving time. By the time I got home, I hated that new car, and I didn't like the person that I had become. I did the family thing for a few days and turned around to head back to my life. I turned THAT 13 hour drive into a 18 day odyssey into what I now describe as my "mid-mid life crisis" By the time I got back, I left the job, I got ride of the apartment in the fancy party of town, I got rid of the brand new car. I took the first job that would pay the rent in a new apartment, and bought a car I could pay off with cash on hand. It wasn't glamorous, and it still isn't. My student loan payments never seem to get any closer to being paid off, and every paycheck seems to stretch just far enough to fall just short. But I look at myself in the mirror every single morning and I know that I will be remembered....not as an architect, a designer...whatever, but as something I can live with. A good friend...probably not as good as I should be all the time but I do try, a good son and brother, a good husband and I hope a good father. Life tends to give you what you need...it just sometimes isn't what you think you need at the moment.

 

My goals are simple. To make as much money as quickly as possible with as little work as possible so I can secure a comfortable, and at the very least- a modest life until death. I want financial security as early as possible. I hope to achieve this without suffering a collapse in morale or my psychological state. Then, if possible, I hope to mate. (heh)

I have a strange lifestyle that is unacceptable for most. I do not have any close friends (in the physical world) or feel strong urges to have them. I am only in distant contact with my parents. I also do not actively try to date, travel, or involve myself in conventional recreational activities. I spend almost my time, 14 hours- 7 days a week focused on career-oriented/development tasks. I have no urge to drink alcohol or spend much time in other hobbies except reading and thinking. My diet is unusually bare and minimalist, my concern is mainly to fend off hunger and acquire the proper nutrients. I have found out that I can achieve an acceptable degree of psychological stability and a good amount of strength by sleeping 8.5 hours a day.

On infrequent occasion I do have demoralizing thoughts, but, strangely in a WW2 context, I often think to myself: "Continue fighting, until the final victory!". I have found that intentionally distancing myself from what is intrinsically highly pleasurable in life saves me many sorrows. The weight of the sorrows far outweigh the transient benefits. So instead of living for brief spurts of joy, I have resolved to live to avoid, as much as possible, despair and horror.

I do not have great concern over how my parents or associates will remember me, but I do hope to achieve things of a high standard in the future.

 

I am currently 15 and I hope I have a long life ahead of me.

I hope to be remembered as the man with a very large historical artifact collection as I wish to travel the world and settle down in Europe.

 

Thanks for the good wishes. My husband is now on insulin and has sugars that are more stable - so not worrying so much now. I forgot to mention that about the time they were discharging him from emergency, a nurse came to tell me my brother was in the emergency waiting room - but not to visit, they were admitting him! He had emergency angioplasty a couple of weeks before and then had some problems. So we visited with him until we had to catch our next flight. He was fine and is now going back to work. Our third incident, was my getting a ride in an ambulance this past Sunday afternoon, when after a fall in our inside front landing - my husband called one when he thought my ankle was broken. No break in the end - just a bad sprain with a soft boot cast and crutches that kept me away for a few days.

Anyhow - Wolfy, you have never truly had joy in your life if you possibly thought it wasn't worth the pain. I hope, for your sake, that you do find out how great joy and great love can be worth any personal emotional pain that may occur when it is gone. Life is not meant to be existence. Life is the greatest gift and is meant to be lived with passion - and I don't mean recklessness that causes pain or grief for self or others - but with a two-handed grasp that means that every moment has value and that when you look back no matter how brief or long the years, that it was lived to its utmost. When we live our lives with joy and commitment to truly experiencing it, we show our appreciation for the gift of life. I've been very fortunate to have loved and been loved by very special people, I can't imagine that any pain I felt in losing them or having those relationships end could be more to be avoided than the joy and privilege I had in having them as a part of my life.

IMHO anyway!!

 

This is a pretty deep question for this forum. But I would like to be remembered as

1) A dedicated Christian (note: not perfect, but saved by His Grace)
2) A devoted and beloved husband
3) A respected and loved father
4) A Patriot
5) A good friend

 

I realize that childhoods shape individuals (particularly those that are young- I myself am not nearly 24). I was raised in an oriental environment and grew up with poverty, psychological abuse, and violence. I spent my formulative years in extreme isolation and dehumanization. I was constantly forced to do things and discouraged from leisure or any self discovery. No siblings, no friends, almost no family. There was very little regard for my personal happiness and I was treated more as an object.

I tried to live a normal life- for about five years 16-21. I tended to adapt and live according to typical domestic standards. But I ended up loathing others and my life and I fantasized about death far too often.. By 21, I decided to detach myself from all of my friends and abandon these psychological connections. I am much happier now because of it, although I cannot be described as happy. I have adopted stoicism as a way of life.

I hope there will be one day where I can abandon this style of living, but now is simply not the time as I am too busy trying to work my way out of my slavery.

 

Wolfy, I do so hope for you that time and life brings you peace and that you will get to experience the joy and life passion I've been so privileged to know. You have a fine mind and a questing spirit that will one day find you the key.

 

Thank you, macrusk

 

Michelle,

Wonderful words for our fellow rogue Wolfy...

I hope to remembered for my encouraging words and patient heart.

Mark