“Defining Me: Moments and Events that Shaped Who I Am.” is a monthly guest post series on Like a Bird where one blogger (or artist, blog reader, crafter, etsian, etc) will share events, moments and trials they have gone through to shape who they are today.
This week, we have our first post from my fiance, Scott. Drafter, writer, gamer, animal lover, dreamer. If I haven’t seen the entire world by the time I’m dead, then what was the point of life? People, places and all other things out there, I want to experience. Mysteries and adventure could sustain me better than any food I’ve tried yet. You can find me, sparingly, at twitter.
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Photograph by Kendra Kantor
Today, I have the opportunity to once more contribute to something so dear to her heart. I always love helping where I can. There is almost an unlimited number of events in my life which have made me who I am, so it is difficult to select only a few. So without getting too depressing here, I’d say two of the largest such moments that defined me had to be the day my (late) father brought home our first computer and the day I bought Wizard’s First Rule.
-Getting that computer pretty much set me on the path of who I am today.
It was an old Acer desktop unit that ran windows 3 or something, if even that. I remember some silly little “game” where I was a detective and had to rummage around the Acer offices to learn more about them. Ever since then I have never been without a computer, or technology of any sort. Every incarnation of Game Boy, several console systems, a laptop since windows 3.11, even my profession grew from knowing computers so well.
My mother was a programmer in the 80’s, so I wasn’t sheltered from the more complicated aspects of computers and through school I was top of the class in computer classes. This built confidence in the one thing I could do right. They kinda took over my life completely for a while, until the second of my moments, but I’ll get to that. Today, I can work with any programming language to some extent, even if I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve even taken my laptop apart to fix it. Computers are just part of my life now, an irreplaceable chunk of my soul.
-As for the second moment, it seems more simple, more mundane, buying a book? Yes, simply that, buying a single book.
It wasn’t even full price, the thing was marked down to like 5 bucks or something. But it changed my life in ways unimaginable. For one thing, I actually had something new and exciting to introduce people to. Before this, I kinda just went with the flow, letting others dictate my life and what I did. I was little more than scenery. Next, I got my first real taste of philosophy from it, I had been kinda a deep thinker before hand, but mostly directionless. The rules throughout the story resonated with me, helped me to shape my thoughts for once. Of course, there’s also the time I joined a forum devoted to the series.
Kinda lame I guess, but it was the first time I really reached out. And got a response. Online family and friends followed, people actually liked having me around, I found a place I belonged. Even more lame, but that’s where I was back then, severe depression, suicidal tendencies, I really was just going through the motions. That book gave me some small urge to try, and it paid off. I was still depressed and all that, but I had reasons now, small though they may be. And finally the créme de la créme, if I may be allowed to use such an old expression. I met her, she who now writes this blog. That was almost a decade ago now, and thinking back it amazes me everything that came from simply buying that stupid book. Friends, family, a woman, a baby, and a life. Who knows how I would have ended up if I hadn’t bought that book. I probably should reread it someday, see if it has the same impact, and more than that I really should finish the series. Heh, like most of the fan base, I just couldn’t make it, I tried and toughed it out until nearly the end. But for all the initial volume did for me, I suppose owe it another shot.
Now these two moments really did help shape me in ways much greater than perhaps the day I did not make school play (as far as I know anyway). But there could easily be even greater events that defined me, after all the smallest of choices (like buying one book over another) can alter everything in ways unimaginable. Until the story of our life is written in its entirety, there is no knowing where the next chapter will take us, or even the next paragraph.
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If you’re interesting in writing a post for the “Defining Me” series please email me kendra[at]likeabirdblog[dot]com or use the contact form.
Don’t forget to check out my personal companion series: Personal Truths and Reflections
