Favourite year/s in your life/milestones

Thank you for sharing.

.Third and best love - I had several girlfriends, but I met my future wife through friends of friends. She's the best thing that ever happened to me, and we are still together over twenty years later. Yesterday when she didn't make a fuss about me having to leave her with our nephews when London got too much gives me the warm and fuzzies. I know that I am very lucky..'

I'm keeping this more to the positive side, like Debbie's original post, though a few negatives have to be in there. I am missing out some really bad stuff.

Primary School - happy days! Didn't fit in, but had a small group of friends. There was no bullying. Lessons were fun. Happy home life.

Secondary School - a sensory and social nightmare. I went to a really rough school. Kids carried knives. The fact that a 5th former beat up a window cleaner one day shows the kind of level we are talking. I had a spate of being bullied. I learned to mask really fast here. My survival depended on it. I hated the place. I think I attended about 25% of the lessons the entire time. There was a fork in the road here that I think changed the course of my life - an innocuous comment/compliment by an older girl made me make my hair my special interest . I was obsessed with looking like Steve Jansen of the band Japan. Taking care of my appearance and masking paid big dividends - she said to my older brother "Your kid would be alright if he did something with his hair.". I really think that if it wasn't for that comment, my life would be completely different now.

Pre-University - first proper girlfriend. She taught me a lot and we are still in touch to this day. Her daughter is suspected autistic and is on the NHS waiting list. I reckon her partner is autistic because he is so much like me it is unbelievable! Some NTs really do have us as their 'type' 

University - made friends (total geeks!) that I am still friends with. Split with my first love after nearly three years, and got together with my second love for six years. That did not end well. She cheated on me and took most of our belongings. During the happy times I got my first post-university job which involved me writing music in an attic by myself five minutes walk from where we lived. Bliss.

The Trance Years - coped with my loss by getting into the Trance scene. Lots of recreational pharmaceuticals that began with 'E' and alcohol. Made new friends on a very shallow level. I even released several records of my own. I must be one of the few people in the world who ended a record label contract rather than the other way around. The attention was way too much for me (obviously my autism in retrospect). I have some regrets about this, but I think, logically, that if I tried to cope it would have involved more drugs and drink, so it was probably for the best that I left this behind.

Third and best love - I had several girlfriends, but I met my future wife through friends of friends. She's the best thing that ever happened to me, and we are still together over twenty years later. Yesterday when she didn't make a fuss about me having to leave her with our nephews when London got too much gives me the warm and fuzzies. I know that I am very lucky.

Autism diagnosis - this year!

Picture: Steve Jansen - my teenage idol and my hair goal  it was the 80s

thnx dear. I tend to save it all to put into the short stories. Much more fun for me.

I'm listening to it now. You've inspired me.

Enjoy

Uhane said:

Was it Reichian therapy, BAC?

Nope.

You should write an autobiography Uhane.

You have had a fascinating life and write about it evocatively.

I'm listening to it now. You've inspired me.

Do you have Remain In Light? It's my favourite Talking Heads album.

I did and it was mine too.

Superb.

Do you have Remain In Light? It's my favourite Talking Heads album.

Debbie said:

1992, when I started to see a psycho/sexual psychologist.

Was it Reichian therapy, BAC? That is the route I took to great effect, Those were tumultuous but exciting years. in the late '80s.

MY fav stable years were the 8 years i got the spend in my studio in an old macadamia nut factory.  I posted pictures in the thread about having feelings of attachment for things. It's a current thread.

I also enjoyed my years in Spain in the late '80s for the later half of my therapeutic experience.

I have also enjoyed my years as a dharma bum when I first lived in Hawaii 25 years ago.

Lived in a station wagon on the beach, beach combing, reading, enjoying other dharma bums' company.

There were a lot of us and the caravan-ed around and kept each other safe.

there were FAR fewer people and many more open natural areas.

I also enjoyed the pandemic years on the island where...

the flights had stopped and I would have miles of beach to myself for hours.

the animals came back, the birds cooed more softly,

the garbage jetsam disappeared from the shore break. the water was clean and clear of human sewage.

The cruise ships no longer darkened the shores like invading cities out of 'Mortal Engines'.

Kamaina were so kind to each other.

Traffic was sparse and leisurely.

Time to dust off some vinyl from '77 by way of inspiration!

My recommendation:

1977 was a good year (many positive recollections and seldom a negative one). 

I think it is important to remind myself which simple features were appreciated about such a year and then put the effort into discovering the adult equivalent endeavours these days. 

Time to dust off some vinyl from '77 by way of inspiration!

I'm just bumping this for a forum friend (who shall remain nameless).

2015 - last time things were good for me and my family. My mum was healthy, so was I no mental or health issues.

Was a good happy year.

Ages 13 to 15. Right up until the Poland trip when everything started to go wrong. That was a good time. In a dorm full of rowdy teenagers; girls straddling their boyfriends on the beds, The lot of us frolicking on the beach. The girls in bikini’s splashing water all around. Baking sun.

I had no idea that the 2 Church youth groups I was a part of were about to rip themselves apart. Life, youth, was an exciting game and I was expecting to be invited to join in at any moment.

my PhD years were pretty good too and the nearly half a year beforehand just after I graduated. Finding that bunch of weirdos in Anime sock made my life feel so much more real. I felt so abandoned by life and I found people who weird like me. I started to find what it felt like to have a social life. Started going out and doing things, nightclubs, trips away. People started inviting me to birthday parties and to join in with stuff. I had interesting conversations about science and bizarre what if scenarios. I went to my first anime convention in several after that during that period of time some of the best trips of my life. I massively grew in confidence I started sharing my sense of humour with people shamelessly and feeling like at least some of them enjoyed it.

I remember towards the end of university sneaking out to go and see a questionable movie my parents wouldn’tve approved of on my own. that seemed adventurous. By the time I’d been in Anime soc for a few years I was going to places on my own where I was greeted by sights and sounds that would probably make the mods uncomfortable if I repeated them here.

don’t get me wrong the space between 16 and when I entered university was not entirely dreadful. there were some good moments and some formative experiences. The same could be said for the degree itself. But there was so much pain and trauma with the way life was  falling apart and then the way I couldn’t come to terms with it that it kind of overshadowed everything else.

before my teens I have to wonder if I was ever really happy. I mean in the sense of there being like a happy year. there were obviously happier times. trips on holiday to sunny Weymouth. Sat in the air-conditioned library reading the Encyclopedia. Playing mega drive. Laser tag for your birthday. Ordering rare technical books at the library. But a lot of this was bright spots in a Panorama of mundanity and loneliness.

Probably sixth form. Last time I felt like I was on top of everything. Doing well in all my a level subjects (special interests) and looking forward to going to uni. Not too many life challenges to deal with. I was in a small school and had had several years to settle in and get to know people. I think I can be a bit of a perfectionist and that was the last time it was possible for me to perform perfectly in what I was supposed to be doing. I did well at uni in the end too but it was much harder.

Tbh the last year's not been bad either, since realising I'm autistic and making new friends, but it lacks that excitement of imagining my whole life ahead of me.

I'm just bumping back up a few threads to see if there is any petrol left in their engines.

The year I left school.

The year I got married.

The year I paid off my mortgage.

Oh, I need to correct this: New earliest memory update - it was an even earlier telly thing actually 17:15-17:35  here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBStroGQjhY And the bit in the floating lift near the end rings a distinct bell also. 

No wonder I'm not right in the head, if that's where conscious memories begin! Two years and five months old, I then decide 'yep, this is too important not to have vivid recollection of for the rest of my days.'

This revelation came to me just two weeks ago. The ep was a year earlier than I'd always thought, and as far as I know never got repeated.  

Bump

Thank you. I like it here it's a place I don't have to mask. I wish I could be more frequent here but I'm only allowed limited periods online as it's "too much" for me otherwise. 

Enjoy it all the same.

I hope your time away was peaceful and relaxed.