What are Your 25 Greatest Achievements?

You're probably saying to yourself, Kim's really been in a mood lately. No fun to be with. Increasingly snide and sarcastic posts. A bad attitude all around. You're right; I know you're right. Given the lack of a more legitimate explanation for the state I'm in, I believe that I may be in the throes of a mid-life crisis. Several signs would seem to confirm this diagnosis:

1. My daily search for the perfect convertible
2. A subscription to Botox Injection of the Month Club
3. An increasing tendency to wear skinny jeans whether they look good or not
4. Surprising maternal angst because my daughter is leaving elementary school and my son is headed to high school

In addition to these outward indicators of the approach of a mid-40s meltdown, I am also finding myself in the desert of vocational wandering. Translated, this means I have no idea what I'm doing with my career. Am I in the right job at the right place and should I hunker down and wait for retirement, or is it time to shake things up? I've always wanted to own a marina. Or maybe I should pursue stardom in Hollywood. Or perhaps the circus is calling.

If you find yourself in the desert of vocational wandering, I pray that you are blessed with an employer like mine. One you can go to in tears, crying "what am I here for??" without fear that they will put you on the list for the next round of pink slips. Of course, it's possible I'm on the list and just don't know it yet, but in the meantime, they're appearing very supportive. So supportive, in fact, that they're giving me the opportunity to visit the Center for Career Development and Ministry outside Boston.

Before my August visit to CCDM, there's lots of homework to complete. Some of it is fun, personality and skill assessment kinda stuff, but one assignment has put a serious damper on the good time I was having:

List Your 25 Greatest Achievements

You can't believe how difficult this is proving to be. I can think of a list of maybe 10-12 things, including:

• Learning to ride a bike
• Successfully narrating the 5th grade spring concert 
• Winning a few Forensic competitions in high school
• Singing a solo in a high school musical 
• Going to Girls State and some other leadership conference while in high school
• Writing a master's thesis
• Scoring a couple black belts (also have a couple brown ones; depends on what I'm wearing)
• Marrying well
• Having good kids 

A close look at these accomplishments reveals that all but one of my achievements was pre-kids. And that black belt was merely a means for handling the stress of having said kids.

As I work on this assignment, it occurs to me that it would be much easier to make a list of 25 things I haven't done that I consider to be true feats. For instance, I haven't:

• Run away from home
• Strangled either of my children
• Smothered my snoring husband with a pillow
• Quit my job on a bad day
• Rented my own apartment
• Told everyone what I really think of them
• Quit every volunteer position I have
• Succumbed to my desire to eat nothing but soft pretzels and mini powdered donuts, and drink nothing but fountain cokes
• Fire bombed the kids' rooms when they are beyond trashed (the rooms, not the kids)
• Kidnapped my sister and brought her home from Colorado

See how much easier that was?

If ever there was a blog post deserving of your contribution/comments, this is it. Go ahead and share your achievements, whether they be the "I did it!" kind or in the "I wanted to, but you're lucky I didn't" category. Have fun!