SJ's 70,000th Thread

As of 8:01 in the p.m., October 28, 2015.

What's the happiest moment in your life?

Not it was either this, or this, or this, but the one moment where, if you were on your death bed right now, you'd think back to and smile satisfyingly knowing that life as you know it was never better.

And here's to 70,000 more.

 

Looking at my granddaughter for the first time 10 minutes after her birth.

 

Birth of my kids and I'm not sure anything is close.

 

College graduation, nearly a decade later than it should have been, but still the first to finish on dad's side of the family and one of the very few to do so on mom's side. Seeing them tearing up afterwards on the campus green is what rocketed it up to No. 1.

 

Obviously, the birth of my kids and my marriage are Nos. 1-2.

Nos. 4-XXX is the first time that I was, at least in part, responsible for saving another man's life.

 

College graduation in 1992. Then finding out 13 years later, after my uncle passed away, that he was so proud of me for becoming the first in my family to graduate from college.

And just when you didn't get a lump in your throat...

 

Birth of my kids, marriage to my wife, etc.

I remember a few years ago, we had a thread on here where we had to say what the best day of our lives were, but it couldn't be anything like a milestone thing, like a child's birth, or getting married, or anything like that. And it only took one search to find that thread, and here is my post on that:

One Friday in early January of 1991.

I'm a senior in high school. I was a mediocre athlete at best, but first period of gym, we're playing basketball. And every single shot I take, I make, even a three-pointer that I launch out of nowhere. I totally dominate and even my gym teacher is impressed.

Middle of the school day, they post the roles for the senior class play that I had tried out for the previous month. A bunch of kids had tried out, and I didn't think I had done that well. I got one of the biggest supporting parts.

Later in the school day, I get the results back from a test that I had taken in a class. I had hoped just to pass. Instead, I got a 100.

Get home from school, look through the mail. Found a letter from one of the colleges I applied to. Figure that it's another rejection letter. Instead, I was accepted. It was my first acceptance letter, one of two. I ended up going to the other school, but I've always been grateful for the rejected one.

My dad gets home from work, I show him the letter, and he decides, let's do something spontaneous to celebrate. We ended up going to an NBA game with the local team and the Magic/Worthy Lakers and the game went into overtime before L.A. won.

Just one of those days in which everything just came together.

What was the best day of your life? | SportsJournalists.com

 

Graduating from college for me. I'd left school to work at a newspaper and not finishing nagged at me for years. I finally pulled the trigger, quit the job, moved to Oregon and got it done. Seeing my folks and my grandma there made it all worthwhile.

 

Being born and not aborted.

 

My wedding was pretty cool, but I'll never forget the engagement. That day we went out to the beach my grandma loved and with her engagement ring, I popped the question to my wife. The best part was I made a weekend of it. The night before we saw a play in San Fransisco, walked along the bay for a while and then had dinner. We had been talking about marriage and she brought it up again at dinner. I was two beers in when she did and I'm shocked I didn't spill the beans. She was expecting I would ask that night and was not happy I didn't pop the question. Of course all was forgiven the next day. Just passed the four year mark of that day. Went by so fast.

 

"What was your best day?"

"My wedding day."

What was your worst?"

"Every day since is a tie."