Wednesday Meme: 5 Things I'm Proud Of

Furiously typing on my husband's laptop, getting ready to meet with a realtor in an hour, I'm typing up this meme. Jim Belshaw asked me to write about 5 things I'm proud of about myself.

1. My family. After 26 years and many uneven and uncertain times, we have made it together. I don't need to go into any details, but marriage and family are work. To a fair extent taking a long view that relationships go in cycles from doldrums to harmony, seems to have given me both the independence and patience to understand that things do get better. I am also proud of my son and daughter who have both faced obstacles of their own. 

2. The ability to change. I have always been flexible. But it never dawned on me that nearing 50, I'd be undertaking a life shift. I think it's exciting to be entering this new world of the military, and I have to say that every day I learn something new and another stereotype is blown away. Though much of what we're going through is daunting --especially the deployment of a loved one to a dangerous area, somehow I've been through enough life stuff that I'm confident I can weather most things. I am very proud that my husband will be operating on both soldiers and locals in the villages they're going to.

3. Helping others with professional development.  We hired this one young woman who had 5 children. This was her first job, and I knew that her kids depended on her. Over the course of a few weeks, I noticed that she was smart as a whip. I asked her if anyone had ever suggested that she go to college. She said they had not. So I suggested that she do so. The next semester enrolled in community college taking a full load of classes plus working for us 40 hours a week. Today, she's a valued employee of a major medical center who is paying her nursing tuition.  In addition, I always gave my staff latitude when it came to their personal lives. There were only 3 of them, and I realized that unless they were happy and felt secure, our business could quickly develop into a viper's nest. So if their kids were getting an award at school --no problem. They could go. If their kid were sick, they could leave to go to the doctor. They didn't have to take PTO for quick interruptions in their day. 

The decision to close the practice was wrenching, however, we felt we had trained our staff well and ours was only the first step in what would be lifetime careers in healthcare. It was amazing when they started to look for jobs. Because of their qualifications and the details we had taught them about surgical skills, they were far beyond everyone else who were applying for jobs. In the difficult recession, all three were eagerly sought. Today, two are in college and working with large medical centers. The third is now a manager with a large corporate healthcare company. I have always felt a business was only as good as the people making the decisions. 

4. My writing. I have always been a writer, but in the last few years I've been able to learn more about the craft of writing.  As much as I poked fun at UCLA, I loved the writers' programme and felt lucky to be with such enthusiastic peers. Because of them, I started a group called The Writerly Pause, where we talked with novelists, an Oscar-nominated Screenwriter and a Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist. Most from my programme were middle aged or older. It was great fun to be able to study everything from poetry, short story and novel forms of writing. Now blogging has been added to the list. I love it all and highly value my writer friends.

5. Traveling with my kids. I think my kids have a healthy regard for seeing new places and meeting new people. The most memorable have been the long trips through the Southwest, and now we're starting on the East. Roadtrips are always the best because you stop in at places like an Ostrich farm and end up buying egg shells, which lay around the house reminding you of the day the large bird nipped my daughter. Or taking my very young son to France. There was also the trip up the coast through Oregon, where we discovered there wasn't just ONE redwood tree to drive through, but many. A veritable redwood drive-thru empire! Next stop for my son is Australia, where he'll stay with his crazy Uncle Pete in Narrabeen, who will do his best to corrupt him --or perhaps it'll be the other way around. I'm planning to take my daughter to Asia next year, once we get settled in Savannah.  

So now I'll ask five other people:

1. Angry Parsnip --an illustrator who lives in the hills of Tucson with Javelinas who pass through her property.

2. John Elder Robison --with whom I've enjoyed great conversations with on not only Aspergers but his own perceptions on life in general. 

3. Patricia Wood --who writes bang-up novels, and lives at the whim of her two cats on a boat in Hawaii.

4.Vermont Ferret who has the best collection of photos over on Flicker. 

5. Bette. Writer, Army wife, advocate for pork products, inventor of bourbon-maple-bacon ice cream, fighter of crazy neighbors.