Going through tough times, I know I have! What about you?

I have not been on these forums all that much these past few years. I hopefully have some semblence of a life now and enjoy some time shooting the shit with some of the people here that I liked in the past + some new people.

I remember moving to DC on a whim. Practical? No.

I remember nearly hitting zero in the bank account. Thankfully, I just scraped by and have saved a decent amount since then. But I remember eating just rice many days. That was a few months ago. My new job is fun and good and allows for a better quality of life + ability to save! I landed it just in time!

Well, I wish that was the hardest thing I have gone through, but it is a cake walk compared to some of the other shit!

So my question to you guys is: What have you been through?

If you care to read on, some of the other shit I have dealt with over the past few years:

Chemo, lyme disease, a violent mugging/attack while abroad, fiancee leaving me (in the middle of chemo no less). It has been a hectic few years. I was even accused of being a spy in China and then attacked. (Add to that the crazy REVERSE culture shock of moving from China, after two years, back to America.)

But I guess the point is, these experiences might serve to make me mentally tough, stronger over all! I hope.

How about you folks?

 

i went ten year without a computer. the ten years during which the internet came into existence. of course the first 29 years of my life i did too, as personal computers did not exist yet at the time. yes i've been homeless, slept in shelters and under bridges and out in the woods, survived eating in soup lines and having to listen to that damd fanatical christer propiganda. i've also been almost rich a time or too. well not really THAT rich, but such that my modest needs and even some of my wants were satisfied.

atm i seem to be getting by, thanx in part to somehow having become an old fart.
and partially in compensation for the time i spent in the air force to get out of being drafted into the army during viet nam.

69 WAS the year i turned 21. just like in the song. only i was in the air force at the time, instead of on some kind of commune. that experience came later, toward the end of the 70s. when almost everyone else had already been there and moved on.

 

Ive passed kidney stones

after that experience I now know theres not much else i can experience in this life that some time cant heal

 

There have been a few times that I felt like life was giving me a good kick in the fanny and at the time was not overly impressed with the process.

The positive is that once they are done with they kind of blur out in the big picture and life goes on. Each time something has happened that was not pleasant, something was gained from it, be it acceptance or a lesson. Plus it makes the good times all that more memorable.

 

I've had a lot of "shit's hitting the fan" times in my life... I'll let you know when it stops.

 

It makes you into a warrior, in a non violent sense, I suppose.

 

Hi Carlfloydfan, you've been through so much I don't even feel like anything I can say would be worth mentioning... it's great that you're here, positive and strong about it all though...the warrior spirit is strong in ya!

 

I've had times I've actually prayed for death, and wondered since why it was not granted my ungrateful ass; and supremely grateful now (S)He didn't heed that request.

I currently live with my 92 yr old mother...she is in good health; but, I assure you living, not working, when you are as old (and YES fucking educated) as I can make each day a very mixed blessing.

I buried 2 of my best buddy cat-companions with-in 3 weeks of each other this makes 6 months ago.

yay for perseverence, huh. Hopefully, I've got enough character for a while, but I still want a job.

I personally think having character can be highly over-rated.

 

look at the bright side


you wouldnt even know they were tough times unless you also had the good ones to compare them to :~)

 

I was gonna type something short, but BBAD summed it up perfectly.

 

You have a great attitude Brad, and I too have had some pretty tough times. I just made a thread a few minutes ago about that very thing http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?p=7202900#post7202900

I lost a job in Louisiana that paid $53 per hour and went 29 months without working. I had to do things I never dreamed of to survive. I met a lady that is sharp as hell and would always come up with a way for us to live another day. It was pretty exciting, believe it or not. We lived with other people, including my ex wife, lived in my truck (someone gave us a camper for it). We spent the coldest nights sleeping in the back of my truck on a twin bed with our giant pit bull dog. When you are cold you really hold your partner tight and bond incredibly close. We really bonded with the dog too.

I got a good job about a month ago. I am an electrical design engineer and being out for so long hurt. I am not making the kind of money I did before, but it is not too bad. It is a lot better than the nothing I had. My unemployment stopped coming in about a year ago. The fact that I am working a lesser position and making less money takes a lot of the pressure off of me while I regain the strengths I lost being out of work so long. And I could have worked several times over the past couple of years, but I would have had to move to a place I don't care for. It is much better quality of life living in Oregon. We are not too far from the pacific ocean, the mountains, the desert, Washington and California. It's a great place to live. And the climate here is better than the places I would have had to move to (like Louisiana and Wisconsin).

I like to believe that I am a better person for what I have had to endure. I don't take anything or anyone for granted anymore. I use to be pretty spoiled and used my money wrongly. A lot of people have helped me through all of this and it is my plan to pay everyone back ten fold.

 

Although It Causes Me Much Pain And Discomfort To Acknowledge The Fact....

BBAD Has Made A Very Wise Post Here...:2thumbsup:.



Cheers Glen.

 

I have problems in my life, sometimes I got it solved because the others got the same questions too, and the answer is just right there.

 

Hmmm... tough times... yeah, pretty much since birth. The details are irrelevant even to me -- what matters is that I kept on keepin' on, and eventually learned what there was to learn from it all. Truth be told, a lot of the shit I endured was just shit for its own sake and there were no lessons at all -- but I'm here. And that's good enough.

One of the things I've learned is that it doesn't really matter what form a person's intolerable shit takes -- it all hurts just as much and just the same. What matters isn't how or how much you've suffered, but whether or not you're able to find a way to greet this day with relish. If you can, you've won. If you can't, you haven't won yet.

What matters most isn't how much shit you've swum in, but how much you've swallowed.

 

In the last few years I haven't suffered anything that sucked too badly apart from mental health issues. I did divorce and was unemployed and moved around a lot, but all that was fine in comparison. I was attacked/taken advantage of and went through worse in my teens.

I'm really glad to see you back around here Carl, and can't believe all that you've been through and come out the other side of! You've been missed, and as usedtobehoney said, my problems look so small in comparison I'm alsmot embarrassed to mention them. How are things now?

 

Life has been hard as long ass i can remember.. I learned at an early age to be optimistic, not because good things will happen if you do cause i guess that depends, but because survival depended on it..
So now i look back on everything and am grateful to be who i am...
Optimism did i guess keep my mind open for ideas to change things and discust with the things the people i should have been able to trust did to me made me more adement in not letting it go in vain and not keeping quiet about them.
The only thing i hate is my complete lack of trust in anyone.............

 

really after childhood, and madness of adolescence ( I mean my actual madness, not the messy chaotic high school life) every year just keeps getting better

back then it was so dark, the situations had no angles, You're feel fated and so alone.

 

Tough times seem to be a constant rain cloud over my head.

Everything from failure to death....seems to have found its way to my doorstep.

However, a few nights ago, I had a long conversation with my husband about the "funk" I've been in lately. His response to my hatred of myself was this:

"One of my best friends got blown up in Iraq - in a Humvee I was driving. He survived and most of his body is made of metal. He defied all odds and is able to walk, talk, drive, and work, just like you and me. However, you are still the strongest person I know."

 

I'm pretty sure god is out to get me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVKKRzemX_w"]Louis Armstrong - Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen (1962) - YouTube