Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was just listening to some energetic music to help motivate me in my house-cleaning project today. The song "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams came on, with the lyric "Those were the best days of my life."
I started to think (as I vacuumed), what were the best days of MY life? I came up with two best times. One was in the early to mid 90s, when I had a job I loved and was good at, my kids were grown and doing their own things, and my husband was healthy and so much fun. He and I ate out a lot, hung out with good friends, went to a lot of concerts and movies, and traveled a lot.
The other best time is now. I feel good, I have a wonderful relationship with my kids and my granddaughter, whom I see every day, and I'm enjoying life despite (or maybe because of) living alone.
What were/are the best days of YOUR life?
Basically my early 20's. I was young, the ladies wanted to date me and my future looked bright.
Unfortunately, that's also when my drinking started to pick up. I made mistakes and there were missed opportunities.
I totally disagree. When you are on a deathbed you will know that all purposes are just nothing.
No I won’t because I know that purpose is self-generated and a function and value in our lives only while we are living it. There is no intrinsic purpose, and being on a deathbed will not change that reality or perspective. Purpose in living is vital to happiness, even though we are temporary. In fact, because of it.
Last edited by Marc Paolella; 10-05-2021 at 05:50 AM..
Basically my early 20's. I was young, the ladies wanted to date me and my future looked bright.
Unfortunately, that's also when my drinking started to pick up. I made mistakes and there were missed opportunities.
Drinking destroys so much happiness. When I hear vacuity in the form of people bragging to each other about how drunk they got at this or that time or event, like it’s an achievement, I just shudder. For many people the best days of their life were those days they tried so hard to escape it.
Being productive is the last thing I would consider as being the best days of my life, there are too many other things that enriched my life made them the best days and the list is too long. One of the very best days however was when my oncologist told me I am cancer free. Everyday , even with the difficulties and challenges life throws is the best of days.
Then you don’t understand happiness or purpose. There is no happiness without purpose and productivity. And if you look back at what made you happy, and introspect, it will result from getting something DONE. Productivity means doing things that accomplish rational goals. The only point in being “cancer free” is being able to continue being productive and accomplishing things.
Makes me think of "the best days" vs "the most memorable (exciting, poignant) days."
The best days (years) can be less eventful, perhaps later in life if loved ones are healthy, money is not an issue, and times are without great stress. Childhood, middle and early old age most likely IMO.
Memorable days (years) can have more ups and downs, more excitement but more fears, tears and challenges. These times are more likely to be from the late teens to 30s. Although I think my 60s will fall in this category.
So for me, this is very hard to answer. Good thread though
1. Getting together with my best friend in 1975 and starting a rock band. I have loved playing guitar for over 50 years.
2. meeting my future wife in 1975. We fell head over heels in love in 1975, married in 1976 and are still head over heels in love 46 years later.
3. Living in Sandpoint, Idaho in 1978. The summer we lived there was so much fun.
4. Going to fisheries tech school in Twin Falls, Idaho in 1978.
5. Getting my "forever" job at Leaburg Hatchery on the McKenzie river in 1985. Loved the job until I retired in 2011.
6. Retiring to Oakridge, Oregon, playing in rock bands with my wife until our drummer died.
7. Recovering from drinking and drugging in 2021 with my brain and body still intact.
8. Replying to this thread, reliving the good times
Today is my daughter's birthday. I found an adorable old video clip of one of her first walks (at 9 months) and posted on her facebook. The clip reminded me of the idyllic time in Houghton Michigan when we quit our jobs, went back to graduate schools while raising our baby.
Those were the best days of our life in spite of the living the bare necessity student life (tiny /noisy family student apartment, thrift store/discount store shopping, cloth diapers etc.).
Everyday was a new discovery of our baby's development steps/milestone and of new knowledges/technologies (computer science for my husband and metallurgical engineering for me).
I think I mentioned in some previous post that I felt like Alice in Wonderland in grad school. My thesis research required daily use of high resolution microscope, scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. It was fascinating to watch phase transformation in hot-stage TEM at sub micron levels.
I worked for 7 years before going back to school so it was a lot of hard work to restudy many subjects especially maths (calculus, differential equations etc. required for kinetics and computer simulations). Finding that you could regain long lost proficiencies in a short time was a reward in itself.
Somehow we managed to squeeze in many fun-time hours between our course works (both of us) teaching (for my husband) and research work (both of us). We have fond memories of taking the baby to the beach/play ground, hiking the wood, picking wild berries/mushrooms and tending the community vegetable garden.
We are now living almost an equal idyllic time in our river front home surrounded by wild life with many fun things to do (gardening, winemaking, grape growing, rowing, flying, birding, taking nature courses, volunteering at the national wildlife refuge). However, it's hard to replicate the excitement of raising a baby and learning/doing new stuffs in grad schools.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,901 posts, read 58,613,296 times
Reputation: 46476
Quote:
Originally Posted by MI-Roger
The best days of my life started as soon as the boys were in college and my wife & I had each other to ourselves again!
Better verify that with your wife!
Often boys leave and never return home +/-.
We don't agree on whether that is a good thing or not.
It's good if you open the fridge door expecting some food to still be left in there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
