Major life tipping point, did you ever have one?

I can think of a few of them. First one would have been when I turned down a full ride to my first choice college to join the Army NG instead. After getting out of the NG, I never did pursue the major I was originally going to go to college for (a double major in marine biology and psychology). Instead, I met my ex-husband, got married and had a kid.

The second one would be when my ex-husband walked out on my son and me. At that point I decided I had to do something better for my son and myself, so I put myself through nursing school. As I was finishing up nursing school, I met my current husband.

The two of those pretty much could run together and be one, but if the marriage would have worked out, I wouldn’t be a nurse or married to my wonderful husband now. I think both worked out for the best.

Meeting my husband and giving him a chance as I was seriously scarred by events in my recent past.

Yeah I have a few, joining the military, getting married and divorced, I think those are the major two. The getting married part freaking sucked.

In January 1988, I transfered from a job I was quite good at, to move into a similar, but more technologically demanding job. It required schooling and dedication to learning the disciplines of the engineering of the equipment and design of the plant.
The result was vast amounts of overtime, job security, respect from managers, and becoming a respected name.
It made all the difference.

I had gotten into some trouble and was lost. I’m told the partner I had thought so much of gave up looking for me at some point while others continued looking for and then found me. It was a wakeup call for sure and I was very hurt to think they’d have done more if it had been their pets or children in my place. Anymore, I trust very few people with my life or love. It makes me angry to not be able to give the way I once did. It feels unfair to have so much fear and let down weighing against trust and it makes getting decent sleep a bitch.

I actually was just offered a lucrative opportunity. I’ve taken the first step, and actually just got out of a webinar half an hour ago. I expect my entire life to change within the next six months. I’ll keep you posted.

They just keep on adding up.

1. Losing my brother.
2. Pospartum depression after my first.
3. Leaving my ex-husband.

when i got my drivers license, i started to actually do stuff outside of play video games and light stuff on fire. Now i’m really into BMX, Longboarding, Snowboarding, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was a really great tipping point for me!

@Hypocrisy_Central I don’t believe there were any INTERNET porn opportunities in the early 80s. Either you have the wrong decade or you mean telephone porn. Not that I know about either, but it doesn’t fit the time frame with regard to the internet and the world wide web.

I think that it’s interesting that we don’t realize the tipping point at the time. We can be stunned, paralyzed, heart-broken, ecstatic beyond belief…but, we only truly get it in hindsight.

My tipping points have revolved around people…realizing that they are not the people I believed them to be.

@MissA I will give that to you, it was the early 90s when you get old te memory slips ;-) Like ancient history to me.

My first tipping point was when my mother died. This happened when I was fifteen, and my sister and I moved in with my father and my stepmother for the next few years. I think this put my life on a whole different trajectory. My mom was very encouraging, but not very much of an authority figure, and the high school my sister and I went to was all about art and academics. Everyone up there was very motivated and studious.

When my sister and I moved, my dad and stepmom already had two little kids of their own and I don’t think they were thrilled for us to be there. They were much more authoritarian, and my stepmom was very loud, assertive, and strict and I had a really tough time talking to her or being at home. They were also a lot less supportive- they wanted us to be strong and independent. The kids at school were a lot more free-spirited and rebellious. It wasn’t long before I started sneaking out of the house and staying out all night. When I was 16 I dated a guy who was in his mid-20s, and he meant a whole lot to me at the time. But I also went through a lot of personal growth during this time, and I think I would have never come out of my shell if I had stayed with my mother. I would be a completely different person, and my sister probably would, too. (She ended up joining the military). Ugh… it’s hard to know what to think.

My next tipping point was when I dropped out of art school. For pretty much my whole life, everything revolved around art, and being a professional artist was a major goal for me. But when I was in art school, I had lots of freedom for the first time. Living in Richmond was amazing, so I pretty much experienced everything I could and coasted until I flunked out. I needed money, and my friend Whitney got me a job working at an adult toy store with her. I had blue hair then and wanted a job where I didn’t have to change my look. I had a lot of fun working there and stayed on long enough to be a manager, which made me realize that I really love managing a small business. So now I’m a business major and working in a more challenging management job.

I’m kind of into tarot cards. The archetypes and imagery associated with them are really interesting. The card that would probably represent a major life tipping point is the tower. It’s a scene of total destruction and chaos, but the card has a hidden meaning that change and growth come out of it. It’s cathartic.

I wonder what the next tipping point will be.

I was a hardworking, dependable employee. I also have a rare combination of professional expertise and skills that are in tremendous demand.

After 6–½ years of loyal, dedicated service at a firm, one of the partners decided to destroy me. He had a vendetta—he was officially my boss, but I never reported to him or worked with him; I was so good at what I did, all of the other partners circumvented him and worked with me directly.

He went behind my back, secretly starting the process of chopping up my job and doling it out, piecemeal, to other people (most of them not yet found or hired). His goal was to humiliate me and put me in “my place.” The other partners were appalled, but they didn’t have the power to stop him.

I immediately turned in my resignation letter. I refused to be bullied or treated in such a disgusting manner. I walked out of that place with my pride intact and my head held straight and high.

As soon as I’d left, I realized how much I’d hated every day of those 6–½ years. The unrelenting, demanding workload; the petty office politics; being punished for doing my job and doing it well—I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from me. I knew that I’d never do that job again, and I haven’t gone back.

@Primobabe Good for you. Was the tipping point actually leaving or having your work undermined that last time prompting you to finally get “as mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore” and making the decision to leave?

I can’t narrow it down to one.

1. 2000-deciding whether or not to really pursue an honest, emotionally intimate relationship with my now-husband. Hard decision considering how I had been hurt so badly in a previous romantic relationship and by my parents.
2. 2007-deciding to get pregnant again. The subsequent miscarriage changed me a lot. I realized that all I have basically is my immediate family as far as support and I think it really reduced my belief that God has a hand in our lives.

@Hypocrisy_Central My tipping point was when I made the decision to leave. Someone had tried to bully and abuse me, and I calmly and confidently refused to be treated that way. As soon as I’d decided to walk away, there was no turning back. I was completely unemotional, which prevented that man from stealing my dignity. My own behavior, when put up against his despicable actions, made him look like a complete @$$. I guess it really was a great moment in my life.

There had already been some history. I’d seen this same man attack and demoralize a number of competent, hardworking colleagues. Sadly, these other employees weren’t able to leave until they’d found new jobs, so they had to suffer the embarrassment of staying on in a hostile, toxic environment (at least for a while).

The one event that really sent me reeling and changed my whole life in an instant was the death of my husband. To wake up one morning involved in a long, happy marriage, with hopes and dreams of vacation plans and retirement plans, and then go to bed that night as a widow with no travel companion, no one to watch TV with or to ask what they would like for dinner. It was the most life-changing instant ever! It took me years to pick up the pieces.

So many of them. Of course, deciding to get married, then deciding to have kids, then deciding to get divorced…..
@Skaggfacemutt O man…how awful….

@Dutchess_III Yes, that really topped any experience I have ever had, as far as life-changing. I’ve gotten married, had kids, been divorced before, and all of that, and none of it was as profound as losing my husband so suddenly.

..May I ask what happened? My dad’s wife had a similar experience. Dad went in for some minor appendicitis surgery, came through it ok, then, that night, just died all of a sudden. She’s reeling from it to this day, and that was in 03.

Well, we got up, had coffee, and he went to work. Just so happens he worked construction, and they were building a parking garage for the local hospital, so he was RIGHT THERE in front of the emergency room when it happened and they still couldn’t save him. He had a cardiac arrest (his heart just stopped.) No history of heart problems, or any health problems.

Man…...

If you read my answer above and then factor in a year’s time to get the facts straight, forgive, accept my part in the situation and still have more love in my heart than bitterness or fear then you might see why I call this my major tipping point because I could’ve saved myself a lot of personal work and just run.