28. Memories: Top Five Moments in Your Life

Seems like as a world online culture we are obsessed with ranking things at times.  So I apologize for admitting it's a bit difficult for me to fully embrase this blog challenge.  Not because I'm entirely opposed to ranking things.  It's more because I tend to have a willingness to rank things that are a bit more superfluous than the top five moments in a life. Also a lot of rankings inspire arguments or discussion,  ala people ranking the top 5 soccer players of all time (I use soccer/football as an example because it has more global appeal than a lot of the sports I grew up with).  My top five life moments are mine.  There is no argument.  There is no discussion.  It is what it is.  What fun is that?   I also don't know exactly how to quantify a "moment".  Is it a second, a minute, a day, a week?  I tend to think of a moment as reducing something down to an extremely short point in time.  Closer to a second than any of the other time frames I proposed.   So now that I've made this a lot harder than it has to be and made mention of all my detractors to this blog challenge, something that I'm sure inspires more interest in it, here goes...

Top five Jon Bear life moments

 ( I reserve the right to change them btw)

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5.  The moment my two brothers, my sister and my best friend (who is as close to a brother to me as someone can be without being a brother) said "I do" to their spouses.  The culminating moment and affirmation of having met the person someone chooses to spend their life with is a truly amazing moment.  The impact that my brothers Robert and Clifford and my sister Heather along with my best friend Henda have had on my life over the years makes it impossible for me to leave this (these) moment(s) off my list.  I decided to condense them in one moment so that one does not take precedence over the other (because they don't).

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4.  There have been a few moments in life where I helped someone anonymously.  Where I did something that I knew was going to bring them some small happiness or joy without my taking credit for it.  I have left those moments to myself and I don't wish to violate them now by specifically mentioning what I did for whom.  Sometimes for an acquaintence and sometimes for a stranger.  So you'll just have to believe me or choose not to.  It's not very likely they'd read about it here, but on any small chance I'll leave those moments unspoken as far as the specifics.  In a few of those moments I've been blessed to see the joy it brung and in a few I've known the joy it brang second hand.  Some I have never known the result and can only hope that it made someone feel great about themselves or the person/people they love.  I know other people do these type things to, so if someone reading this thinks I did something for them... just remember... it could in fact have been someone else and you might credit me with an act of kindness another was responsible for.  Those moments were wonderful for myself though too and that is why they make my list.  Maybe taking credit for them just now ruins the sentiment and bumps them off the list? >.<

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3.  I hope you all like how I've cheated so far to combine several moments into 2 moments.  Third would be the moments in which I earned my degrees.  I received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Susquehanna University in 1998 and a masters in Library Science from the State University at Albany in 2004.  They were moments that brought me personal pride and were recogniton of hard work and achievement.  I know that applying a degree is important and I may not have been as successful in those endeavours sinceI earned my degrees, but hopefully that does not minimize the time and work put in to earn them.  I don't mean to suggest that earning a degree is some kind of guaranteed mark of success above anything else either... it isn't.  That said, it is at least A measure the indicates you stuck through, persevered and worked hard towards a goal.  It's concrete recognition of that which gave me a great feeling IN the moment.  So while it may not make a top five periods of my life list, it does make a top five moments of my life list.  I hope that's fair. 

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2.  The moments in which I met my best friends over the years is second on my list.  People like John LaCourt George Clancy, Brandon McSherry and even more closely and more personally meaningful, my twin brother Clifford, Henda Hsu and Carlyn Brody.  Other than my twin, these people were people who I did not know would become my best friend or have the impact they have had upon my life in the moments in which I met them.  John, George and Brandon were all best friends whom I have lost contact with over the years.  They were the best friends of my childhood and young adulthood when I did not do a great job of keeping in touch once life and circumstance separated us.  I hope to be able to stay in touch for the rest of my life with friends like Henda and Carlyn and my very good friend Bobby Vasquez.  People who all help to shape my morality, my thoughts, my actions all for the better and sometimes against what might be my nature.  They continue to inspire growth, learning and maturity in me, that hopefully I apply successfully.  I can never argue though that I have not been given the tools to succeed with the family I've been blessed with and friends I have made over my life.  They retrospectively make my list of top five moments, because I may not have realized their importance to me in the initial moment.  I love them though and am grateful for all they have done and continue to do for me in my life.  

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1.  I'm going to cheat here and reserve this moment for something(s) that have not happened for me yet.  It's my list and I allow myself to cheat on it so anyone who wishes to criticize it can make their own lists. haha =D  I hope that eventually the top moments in my life will be the moment that I say "I do" and hear those words from the special women who chooses to speak them back to me and the moment in which my child or children are born, if I am ever blessed enough to have children.  Is it "sad" if my top spot on my list remains empty?  I don't know... maybe a bit personally.  I'm not searching for sympathy or empathy though by putting it on my list and leaving unfulfilled for now.  I'm just making what I believe to be a factual list relative to how the question was asked and my interpretation of it.  No matter what life holds for me going forward I'm certainly happy and extremely grateful for most of the moments it has held for me in my past... even a large majority of the moments that did not make this list.

I think that our blog challenge creator may have come up with this challenge to counter balance the challenge of speaking about a difficult time.  Despite my reservations, I've enjoyed considering it as it's composed of some of the most special moments that make me happy, thankful and grateful to have the life that I live.  =)