Did a single childhood event forever shape your life?

yep. one day i hung out with a girl in year three (she soon became my best friend)and that influenced me to go to the same college as her and at that college i got REALLY involved in music.

@ilvorangeiceblocks Welcome to fluther.

I remember when I was playing with some kids in Greece in the 70s and one of them said “don’t play with him, his dad is English and the English took over Cyprus”. My dad’s not even English and it was actually the Turks who had just attacked Cyprus, but you don’t expect a 7-y-old to know the details of international politics (Cyprus had been part of the Commonwealth before that, which is what the boy had probably heard from some grown up). In any case, it did define me as a “foreigner” which is a title I have somehow managed to keep in whatever country I have found myself since then.

Any event influences your life forever, so that for each of them you would have been a slightly or very different person had it not happened. Whether the influence is large enough to call it “shaping” your life is a matter of how high you decide to put the bar.

I remember when my Great Grand Father passed away. All that ime before it I was being spoiled by my grandmother and Aunt who would buy me anything I wanted. My parents did not get along with my Aunt nor grandmother. My Aunt actually told my mother in an arguement ” You buy him what he needs – we will buy him what he wants”. Being so young I did not think about it that much until I turned 13 and my great grand father passed away. I had the choice to either go see him at the hospital or go shopping with you know who. Well I went shopping only to return home to a sad family.
When they talked at his memorial they said that he was the type of man who worked hard for everthing he ever had, he became well known and what he could not have in life he would not accept any other way other than working for it. At that point of my life I wanted to work and earn my own. I started working so young infact that when it came time for all my friends to get jobs they came to me to help them fill out applications. I never left a job without having another one lined up to earn more money. Still I do this and I am enjoying my life traveling the world. This is all because of a speach he gave me when last saw him, So please if you ever have the time to google it or read it, it’s title is called: “The Company You Keep” One part of it says: A man is not defined always by his appearance, but with whom he is associated with in life. For example: If you run with a pack of wolves you will learn how to howl, but if you associate yourself with eagles you will learn to soar to great hieghts.”
So in my youth at a time where kids were and are still killing each other in the streets, selling drugs, getting pregnant or locked up in prison. I choose to use my time to be productive, not only by working jobs, but working on trying to acheive my dreams with learning my talents and hobbies. I would rather do that, join a choir, practice a sport or how to play an instrument than become another statistic. I would today like to encourage those of you who are parents to encourage your kids to do the same.

@Shamone_Styles welcome to fluther.

I think I was around 12 or 13 when my cousin introduced me to illegal drugs. I know I should have said “No” but I didn’t. shame on me From that day on I was hooked. My life was pretty messy all throughout my teenage years. Got myself tattoos, shaved my head, dropping in and out of school, gave my parents broken hearts and got myself pregnant. But I’m proud to say that I’m 10 years sober now…and counting. And yet, that one day when I could have just walked away or said “No” kind of shaped me and brought me to where I am now.

Actually, I have two, but, the one that effects my everyday way of living or my life or the most crippling happened twice. Once, when I was almost five years old. I remember my mother and I went to one of her friends house. She, (my mom) had put me in a bed for a nap. The next thing I remember is hearing her screaming. Watching her. Her looking down at me. I had spiders on me BIG ones… Then, about a year or two later, I went to look for my dad, as I started into the garage and saw he was underneath the car and all around him were these hugh spiders actually they were tarantulas. I was so frighten I couldn’t rspeak, I couldn’t say a word. Nothing would come out. I have been terrified of spiders since. Eventually, I was diagnosed arachnophobic. I’ve been through therapy without success. I’m afraid to close my eyes while in the shower for fear a spider will climb up my leg…

I went to see Titanic in theaters when I was ten. Saw my first boob lol, that sounds like something a guy would say. I think that made me as sexual as I am. I kind of regret persuading my father to allow me to see it

My brother was hit by a car and died when I was 4 and he was 6. He was always very loving and protective of me. Needless to say, his death affected all of my family in very powerful ways.

I don’t even remember Titanic having any nude scenes…you it wasn’t some other movie, like “Tit-aniac” or something? Some of those have really funny titles

Birth

Not sure, but I think a negative incident in my childhood caused me to forget my childhood!There are times when I can reach near anxiety attacks, but I pull back. Doctors say I don’t want to face what I fear most and they believe it was something in my childhood. They also think it has caused me to have recurring nightmares about a particular house that I don’t remember having visited. I believe it has also made me act more childish than other adults my age and has made me over protective of my children.

Listening to Carmina Burana for the first time (not just the first movement that everyone knows, but the whole damn thing). For one thing, it was introduced to me by my grandmother who died in January 2009. She was a lover of language, classical music, and traveling, which are basically the three pillars of my interests. Unfortunately, by the time I realized we had the same interests, she had already developed Alzheimer’s.

Carmina Burana not only furthered my interest in classical music, but also sparked my interest in Latin and other languages. I was only 11 when I heard it, but I was fascinated by Latin and I knew I had to study it, which I did, for four years in high school. Getting interested in Latin caused me to become interested in other languages, which led to my decision to become a linguistics major. So, even though it sounds small, it set off a chain of events that shaped my life and interests and of course it makes me think of my grandmother. Thank you Carl Orff for writing it. :)

6th grade. I worked as a hall monitor, a crossing guard, audio/visual assistant, and cafeteria worker at my school, just so I could get an award at the end of the year assembly. My principal, who didn’t like me, purposely didn’t announce my name for the ribbon, and gave it to me in an offhand way later.
While I am still driven to serve, I no longer care about recognition, and have a deep contempt for authority figures who are incompetent or hateful.

@Jack79 I specifically remember seeing boob lol..when he has drawing her

Yes. And that’s all I am going to say, other than it wasn’t at all pleasant.

When I was five I had five dollars in my dresser drawer. I took it to school and spent all of it on 5 cent erasers. I lied to my mom about taking the five dollars and when she found my stash of erasers I was caught. I was labeled a liar for the rest of my childhood and my mother never believed what I said. Eventually I became a really bad liar. The dangers of labeling a child…

It took me till I was 18 and out of the house to stop lying. It took me till I was 23 to embrace who I was, an honest, kind, loving person. And now that I’m 30, I can look back and see that I wasn’t a horrid liar at 5. Every kid lies and does stupid things.

I still however am not cured of my extreme love for office supplies.

My parents divorcing when I was 8 had the biggest impact on my life. When my dad left us, my mom who suffers from severe depression, had a breakdown. She’d never had a job before, didn’t even know how to balance a checkbook & somehow she won full custody.

Spent the rest of my childhood taking care of her and raising her really. Ever since I’ve fought and done everything I could to be her exact opposite. So that really shaped who I am today.

Yes, my mother died when I was 12 – after that everything was different. Not all bad though, because of that I have an incredibly close relationship with the coolest person on the planet, my little sister, not too many sisters get to experience the closeness we have.

@SuperMouse What’s doing with gimmedat? Haven’t seen her around lately.

Abuse. Constant, corruptive and nonstop abuse.

@jamielynn2328 there is something inherently sexy about office supplies, isn’t there? I thought it was just me.

my father being in-and-out of my life throughout most of it – and not doing much good when he was in it.

@evelyns_pet_zebra they are sexy, and very addicting. my sister has the same problem too, you are not alone.