What about starting a bragging forum?

A note of explaination:
For all of you who have asked me, here is the answer to the kind of thing this thread is meant to include. It can be anything from a small accomplishment to overcoming tremendous odds. Whatever it is that makes you feel good about yourself or your fellow man (or woman ha!)

"The corn is as high as an elephant's eye and it looks like it's growing clear up to the sky." sort of thing. That is a line from "Oklahoma" titled "Oh, What a beautiful Morning" in case you don't recognize it. You might be too young to remember that since you are a "Spring Chicken".

The forum could include bragging about how you climbed Mt. Rushmore or scaled the Empire State Building all the way to showing off the huge tomato that you grew this year, or the prize-winning fish that you caught on a safety-pin hook. You get the idea. Of course that would lead to having a photo link so you might want to veto that as it gets into the photo thing again.

This message was edited Sunday, May 27th 8:59 AM

This message was edited Friday, May 25th 6:15 PM

Louisa, I think that is so neat. No telling what people have as their most wonderful moments. They will be as varied as the imagination can possibly dream of. I hope lots of folks will jump on this new bandwagon. It could be a lot of fun.

Elena thanks. I am sure that you have a few tales to tell, so come on then since you started this!!!!... :-)

I think we should bragg about the many bargains we buy at knock down prices, i go around all the stores weekly to see if they have put their prices down, i never pay the full price for plants unless i am desperate, i always hang on.

I am trying to think of my best things to brag on. It can't be my grandchildren or my wonderful husband as everyone does that. I will make my mind up soon so stay tuned for the big news. In the meantime, lets hear it from you folks. Who wrestled a crocodile or swam up river to save a drowning person....? Who ran 40 miles and won a big race, etc. Who scored the most awesome points for what team in what sport? Who met their loved one in some wierd place or won their heart away in spite of awesome odds against it? Who survived some terrible accident or illness in spite of the odds against it? Gotta get with it folks. We are waiting and you don't often get a chance like this to tell that wonderful story. To be continued...........

gee, the sales woman at home depot gave me the empty pots and trays someone returned to them this morning, put them in bags for me.... maybe a bragging forum should be 12 step style with no names listed....

Hey Girls,

I hope this bragging forum isnt becoming gender orientated; what can I possibly brag about as a mere male !!!

El Tel

No El Tel, this is not a gender thing. Start bragging sir.

OK, here goes. Last year, my fiance and I quit our jobs, put our stuff in storage, and backpacked all over europe for 3.5 months with nothing but toiletries, a credit card, a camera, a guide book, and a change of clothes. it was the most amazing experience of my short life yet. But the hardest thing was that I wasn't able to take with me all the wonderful plants I came across, but memories of endless fields of sunflowers, poppies, and lavender will always stay in my mind. Now, I just want to grow hydrangeas and geraniums everywhere.

Very cool, pukeGreen! Thanks so much for sharing that. I am not so brave, but I can imagine! :o)

I always feel I have achieved a great feat when seeds germinate and grow on into flowering plants, be it a common marigold to something unusual I get a buzz out of it.

I try to see an achievement every day. Many of us who have worked with living things save lives and prevent deaths and injuries more often than people think. On the open farm I've even had my hand shook for the most simple things such as deliverng a goat kid or managing to herd the sheep back to where they are supposed to be.

One achievement came when our vet dropped in with a student. The vet is well known for never saying anything good or bad about people, no compliments ever came from him nor did he shout at you if you missed anything vital. He stode into the kitchen tailed by my boss and presented me to the student like this, 'Now you will see some of the best kept youngstock in the area and this is the stockman'. He had told the student in front of my boss but not me, 'Well we've been on farms where the stockman's eyes are firmly closed, now you will meet one with her eyes fully open' my boss was tickled pink and almost gave me a bonus LOL.

An achievement from a close friend I will also tell. I have mild asthma and after helping to stack straw a very bad attack came on, my colleagues propped my up and ran to call an ambulance, my friend stayed with me sitting behind my head whining, she saved me from swallowing my tongue and possible death. She was a small Springer Spaniel who didn't leave my side and licked my face everytime I blacked out and my head lolled back, by keeping me awake she prevented complications for when the paramedics turned up. She stayed with me all day although I was alright, even when her owner called she refused to go. Eventually she realised I was OK and went back home, she became a great companion and I'll always be grateful to her for what she did.

Well thats my brag for the day. Silver linings are always there you sometimes have to look a little harder for them.

Baa what a scary but wonderful story. Congratulations on the compliments, they were obviously well deserved. Here again is yet another tale of a dog saving someone's life. What is it about these great animals that they should possess this tremendous capacity for loyalty, love and courage. Thanks for sharing :-)

Y'know... I used to think some of the wonderful opportunities that came my way were worth bragging about, and I did, FULLY. (They even impressed ME, LOL!!) Later on in life, to my chagrin, I found out most people thought I made them up.... that no one could have possibly done all those things in one short lifetime. Now I usually "brag" if I have managed to get seeds to sprout, or something to grow, and such...

I happen to be a high achiever, and most things come easily for me, but I find it intimidates some who didn't enter this lifetime with a belief in a multitude of things they can do well. In some growing wisdom that has come my way with age, I try to use my talents to teach and/or encourage others to try for the higher goal.... and quite often, we find we CAN do more than we thought.

I BELIEVE achievement needs acknowledgement, and I think it is great if someone can/will post those achievements here so we can all clap loudly! (I especially like Baa's story of the rescue dog...and, pukeGreen... Loved your chutzpah to put everyday life on hold and travel! What a great gift you gave yourselves.)

I'd love to see all the stories of giant tomatoes, bumper crops of home-grown sweet corn, plants that FINALLY bloom after years of trying.... and ALL the Silver Linings... but esp. those things that were a real challenge and we managed to do them despite the odds.
-darius

OK here it is..my proudest achievement! I am Dyslexic. I grew up before this was recognized and had a pretty tough time in school. But with my parents help I learned to read and write and although my typing skills are slow I even did computer order entry for a couple of years before moving on.
After spending many many years thinking I was retarded I screwed up my courage and after having dropped out of high school, went back at the age of 40 to graduate. At 42 I enrolled in some college courses and with my new confidence was able to get A's! I have had a succesful working life and never believed there was anything I could not do because my wonderful parents always encouraged me as a child to "go for it"
My proudest moment...was on my 48th birthday when I realized that I was not I repeat NOT STUPID!

Zany

Good for you! So many people with dyslexia give up because they are taught that they are stupid and even in our modern world the kids bully those who have difficulty with the main stream education for whatever reason it might be.

I shared a couple of houses with a man who was on the same course as me and in his first week constantly asked how to spell various words. After a particularly trying day I shouted are you dyslexic or just plain stupid? Didn't I feel small after he told me he was severely dyslexic and sometimes took over an hour to read a page. Everyone at college had made fun of him studying in all his breaks but he would never tell them. I would keep the noise down at night until he took a break from studying, we became great friends, even though my spelling wasn't up to scratch LOL. I admire him for his sheer determination. He graduated with a distinction while most of us barely scraped a merit.

Please, if anyone else has overcome such odds tell us all because its very inspiring to meet people who never give up despite the circumstances.

Zany, what a great story, and accomplishment! What I try to do is exactly what your parents did... help someone realize there is NOTHING wrong with them! We are all just a bit different, is all.... but ALL capable, if someone just shows them how to reach what's always been inside...

And, Louisa, you should have shared your full story, here!

This message was edited Friday, May 25th 7:17 PM

I drove in downtown Rome, Italy.

Grannylois~ Whoa! you got any pitchers to prove yer brag? I've seen that place, my hat is off to you! :) Actually I was just gonna tell a big tomato tale, but you blew me away with that one....Well yes, since you asked, I'll tell you how big it was. You know those gallon plastic buckets ice cream comes in? This tomato was SO big, when I tried to lift it out of the bucket, my fingers got stuck and tore the whole thing up. All I had to show was a tub of crushed tomatoes, no one beleived it had weighed 5 lb+. Still got that bag of frozen crushed tomatoes to prove it!

No pictures, Ivey, just hair-raising stories about it. And don't you wish you had a picture of your monster tomato? Seems like we should always carry one! Once I was driving through the countryside and saw 3 solid black cows in a field, each with a solid white calf, all the same size. That was too weird. Once I was driving through an area, nicknamed 'fast food row', and saw on Burger King's lawn, three huge dogs, sitting there watching the traffic. One was solid black, one was solid brown, and one was solid white. They were about 10 feet away from each other and all sitting in the same pose, looking the same direction, watching the cars. Just too cute, but again, no camera!

Grannylois~ I know what you mean about not having a camera at the right time. If they get any smaller, tho we'll be able to carry a digital around our necks,like a pendant, leave it ON all the time, like the security cam at 7-11. Then when you have a Kodak moment, go back and hit print!LOL

Well, we each create our heros. Now I will have to justify that statement, o Lordy, what did I do now?

My son is not dyslexic, but has severe dysgraphia... which causes synapses to misfire between the brain thinking the pattern and the hand replicating the pattern. Which made handwriting almost impossible... They put him in Special Education which made me feel so bad, as he was lots smarter than I. How would this make him view himself, and how would he present to others?

Well, I had just finished a Department of Defense retrainign campaign, and had the championship typing tutorial to prove it. Paid money and everything, so I set about teaching my 11 year old how to type. With timed writings, nimbleness excersizes, charts, graphs, and ect. By the time he went into computer class, he was so ahead of the curve, it really meant alot to him to be recognized this way, although we fought tooth and nail during!

He may never want to, but I know that I gave him the tools to go to college if he decides that is what he wants. There is no way he could function in regular High School without his AlphaSmart machine let alone go to college lecture courses. He doesn't even know it yet, but I will be his hero. And even if he never knows it, he became mine.

Cena