Day 16: Accomplishments

What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

Okay, I have totally sucked at keeping up on this 30-Day Blog Challenge.

Listing my “greatest accomplishments” seems like such a weird task. It feels a bit arrogant and I plan on continuing to accomplish great things in my life.

In the meantime, I will do this in pictures:

1) “So you got married?” Well yes, any woman can go marry a man. It was the process that lead up to my marriage. It was letting go of fear, pain, doubt and then trusting myself enough not to question my judgment. It was trusting someone to Love me. That was HUGE.

A photo from the plane, my trip to San Diego to find a place to live.

2) Just over five years ago, I packed up my things and with my bearded dragon lizard (Pudgy, may she rest in peace) outran a Hurricane as I moved across the country from Florida to California. I didn’t even have a job! I only had a few friends in San Diego, but I knew Florida was not the place I wanted to be in order to make the life I wanted for myself. A little to scary leave, yes. Yet here I am. I have a kick-ass life because I believed in myself enough to know that I could make it. There were hard times, but I didn’t give up. I love my home-state, but moving to California is one of the best things I’ve ever done. And finally, a move I made for MYSELF!

The hubs and the girls during their first snorkel. I love this photo.

3) This ties into number one a little. It used to be a deal-breaker if a man had children. I woudn’t date him. I knew I did not want kids and if HE didn’t want to deal with any exes, why would I? Then I met the hubs. And that changed. I have these amazing girls in my life and the whole ‘dealing with exes’ thing was really nothing big to worry about. I have my moments where I wonder how I fit in since we live so far away from the girls, but after having been resolved with the line of thinking that my heart wouldn’t be open to such an idea, I found out I was wrong. I have learned far more than I could ever try to type into words through having my husband’s daughters in my life. I also learned that I am a much more capable of letting go of fear and opening my heart than I thought I was.

4) My  charity work. I am really proud of the amount of money I’ve raised over the years for incredible causes. Not to toot my own horn; it’s been a lot of money. 🙂 Moreso, I am proud of the awareness I’ve raised. From speaking in high schools and colleges, to presenting at conferences and having the Governor of Florida name September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in the state (gosh that was awhile ago), I have no plans to slow down.

Getting to the top. Rock climbing in New Jack City.

5) Living. Life has thrown some challenges my way in this department. I have survived a lot and many have told me that they would have given up. I don’t know if that’s true, though. I think I did what I needed to do at those times – fight for my life. I really hope to lead by example. The value of a happy and quality life after it’s almost been taken from you is immeasurable. I’m strong, and I’m pretty fearless (except for clowns, but we’ve had that discussion).

Tell me, what are YOU most proud of?