Ever had what you consider to be a life changing experience?

breakstuff

Edit - changed my mind about posting.Would cause huge issues if viewed by the wrong people.

Emp_Fab

The Police you mean ?  

breakstuff

Emp_Fab said:

The Police you mean ?  

Lol @Emp_Fab ;

No worse than that.

Bloody family.

richardhomer

breakstuff said:

Edit - changed my mind about posting.Would cause huge issues if viewed by the wrong people.

I think you’re right - and it would probably be a massive shock if they all found out you’re their real father....

breakstuff

richardhomer said:

breakstuff said:

Edit - changed my mind about posting.Would cause huge issues if viewed by the wrong people.

I think you’re right - and it would probably be a massive shock if they all found out you’re their real father....

Sussed.When I said the wrong people,I was referring to the CSA.

marantz1300

1969 parents split up

my dad was chopping down doors with an axe, he killed the cat

I haven't seen him since.

1980

Motorcycle accident, my mate died. I broke both legs and back, got nicked for manslaughter.

,

Luckily the Coroner  put a stop to that. Old Bill trying to fit me up.

(I  had a few run ins back then).

1989

My eldest son died.

1998

Broke right leg in 12 places and got MRSA.

2011

Had ankle fused,mothering law died and mrs went nuts,tried to get me locked up

Somethings about due again.

jonnyburgo

Having a gun pointed at my face in a Rasta's house in Moss Side (it turned out to be fake, y'know for a laugh). I've shared the story on here before but yeah, pretty mad. Life lesson - drug people are bad, m'kay? stay away from them, the idea of the cuddly pot growing hippy is long dead.

dindude

Wow, some serious stories here.

Nothing as dramatic as some but the things that have shaped who I am:

Mum and Dad divorced when I was about 10 or 11, still had great relationship with my Dad but left us very poor and living on a crappy council estate.

Moved to London after Uni and after growing up in Somerset and then Uni in Southampton, I couldn't believe the amount of life and spirit this place had, huge playground for someone in their 20's. People moan about London (mostly non-Londoners obviously) but it's kept me amused and amazed for the last 20 years.

Met my wife 11 years ago, really settled me, then finally had a kid in 2016 at age 40. That's the biggest change of them all right there, but what a little dude he is.

Gassage

Yep- as a then straight man, discovering the internet, discovering that all my sexual fantasies were very gay and therefore I was gay! It did take 3 years, but certainly life changing!

boogieman

Gassage said:

Yep- as a then straight man, discovering the internet, discovering that all my sexual fantasies were very gay and therefore I was gay! It did take 3 years, but certainly life changing!

The internet made you gay? Wow!! 

  

dindude

boogieman said:

Gassage said:

Yep- as a then straight man, discovering the internet, discovering that all my sexual fantasies were very gay and therefore I was gay! It did take 3 years, but certainly life changing!

The internet made you gay? Wow!! 

  

Quick, contact the Daily Mail, they've been looking for this proof for years!

Philly_Q

dindude said:

boogieman said:

Gassage said:

Yep- as a then straight man, discovering the internet, discovering that all my sexual fantasies were very gay and therefore I was gay! It did take 3 years, but certainly life changing!

The internet made you gay? Wow!! 

  

Quick, contact the Daily Mail, they've been looking for this proof for years!

I think they've primarily blamed the BBC.

Rocker

This thread has been both inspiring and therapeutic.  Inspiring in reading about the experiences of other members.  Therapeutic in recognizing that ones own little problems are but a drop in the ocean compared to the experiences of others.

It is probably true to say that everyone experiences a "what you consider to be a life changing experience" and this is mine:

In the 1970s I played country/Irish/country rock guitar with a pub band, depped with other bands playing weddings and played with a rock band who had a Thursday night residency gig.  I was playing an average of four nights a week and holding down a day job to boot.  Clearly this could not continue so I cut back on my availability and continued the pub band playing.  Equipment wise I played a Gibson Les Paul Custom through a 50 watt Marshall head and a Marshall straight up 4 * 12" cab.  My FX pedals were both MXR, distortion and phaser.  I had my own microphone and stand as I sang and added BV.  The band I played with had the standard closed car trailer to transport the gear.

In 1979, I was in the act of loading some kit into the car trailer, which was attached to the car and well in (eight to ten metres at least) from the main road, when a car driven by a drunk driver collided with the trailer, the car and me.  That moment and the next few days remain a blank.  I was badly injured and the local hospital transferred me to St. Vincents Hospital in Dublin.  The transfer happened in the middle of the night, the ambulance called to my parents home - they thought they would not see me alive again - and continued towards Dublin.  Sirens blaring and all that.  I remember the pain and little else.

My right femur was broken in three places.  My left leg was so badly damaged it had to be amputated through the knee.  I lost 40 mm height and now sport a right foot that points outwards by around thirty degrees.  The nurses in Intensive Care literally kept me alive by sitting by my bed and holding my hand.  After a few months, the physiotherapy started!  It took weeks of hard work to get my right leg strong enough to bear my weight.  So that I could walk using crutches.

Eventually I got fitted with a prosthetic leg and Rehab and a lot of determination got me walking again.  Without the crutches.  Despite what you may have seen on TV programs like Tomorrows World, prosthetic legs are pretty basic tools and at best a small fraction of what a real leg is.  Walking is hard work.  On the coldest day, I would be in a lather of sweat.  This situation continues to this day.

I learned how to play golf.  Playing left handed which is the opposite to my normal swing as my stump cannot bear the pressure of a golf swing.  I enjoy the social aspect of the game and I hate playing in the rain as it means I have to wear my rain suit.

I always loved listening to music.  Not attending concerts, just putting on an LP and enjoying the sounds.  I grew to love piano music, the reason I did not learn piano back then was the lack of music teachers in our local town.  Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart etc., all geniuses.  All wrote music that will be listened to and enjoyed for centuries to come.

I did not play guitar for many years after the accident.  Actually I sold or gave away all my kit. I bought an SG about the time that Princess Diana was buried.  Neck dive!  How on earth did Gibson continue to make instruments with such basic design faults?  I was surprised to discover that my muscle memory retained chord shapes so it was only a question of strengthening my fingers and toughening the finger tips!  A lot had changed in the music scene in the intervening years - the internet, better and cheaper guitars and amps etc.  About a year or more ago I discovered that I liked playing bass.  Even more so than guitar.  And recently I decided to try to learn how to read music.  Which means using a keyboard, in other words learning piano.

Amputees don't have things too easy, true we get special parking spaces on our city streets, but it is always hard to walk those same city streets.  Cobbled or uneven pavements are a nightmare.  Sloped pavements ditto.  Even the Health Service make life as difficult as possible, deliberately or not I cannot say, but imagine having to visit a clinic in Dublin simply for a doctor there to confirm that ones prosthetic limb is broken and needs to be repaired!!!  Limbs last around five years and need continuous adjustment and refinement so trips to the limb fitters are a regular occurrence.

But there was a Crock of Gold at the end of the Rainbow!  Or in my case at the start of the rainbow.  A young woman from close to home, a lady that I knew of but did not know, called to Vincents to see me.  We fell in love instantly even though I was too ill and weak to even move my head at the time.  We got married shortly after I got my prosthetic leg and are still together some thirty five years and counting later.  Life is not easy for an amputee but it is even harder for someone close to an amputee.  There is no concealing the pain, the skint stump or the phantom limb feelings from the one closest to you.

I don't think you ever get over certain life changing experiences but you learn how to cope.  You work at a different pace than before.  And it helps if you have someone whom you love and who loves you holding your hand.