What changed your life forever .

leftywoody · #1 03-15-2009, 08:03 AM

When I was 17 in 1969 I worked at a gas station on the Indiana Toll Road . In the middle of nowhere and cornfields . My knowledge of the real world revolved around farming and small towns . A bankrobber made his gettaway ,cops on his tail , from Elkhart to our small plaza and took a patron hostage . An Indiana State Police Sharpshooter ended the escape with a well placed shot through the back window of the car . The hostage was rescued . In the 30 minutes this took to play out , I realised my little world was a whole lot bigger than I thought . You all have had life changing moments when you were very young that you never forget . Can you share one ?

deacon · #2 03-15-2009, 10:31 AM

Vietnam..led to the realization :
If the situation I find myself in is not going to result in someone dieing, then it isn't all that important.

Large Filipino · #3 03-15-2009, 11:54 AM

I was married really young at 21 because I found my soulmate. 22 years later she is still with me. That's more than half my life.
Then the day my son was to be born I was a K Mart mechanic making 150 dollars a week 2 people had called in sick so it was just Joe and I and we were swamped. The call came in and like a trooper Joe told me he would be more mad if I didn't go. So I left him all alone. When I came to the hospital it took a while to scrub down all the grease on my hands face hair then when I saw my wife my son took his first breath 5 minutes later. That was my life changing event. The day I became a father. It made all my struggles that I chose to have made because I didn't listen to my parents about more education I really didn't want them spending any more money on me I know now that is their reason for living I'm living that now too worth while.
Fast forward to my life now. Son is gonna be 21 this year. He still does not know his direction in life but the one certainty is that I will be behind him. Daughter is going to the Navy this year. She's very smart takes all AP classes in HS straight A's likes what the military will offer her. Just make it thru boot camp I keep telling myself. I want to move close by it's killing me man it's killing me. All dads out there start that college fund NOW TODAY there is no TOMORROW.
I lose my job of 15 years but I kept my host home. So to combat my depression I took on this hobby. So Motorized bikes is yet another life changing event.
And I don't need no depression pills. My rides to nowhere beats all.

Pablo · #4 03-15-2009, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftywoody

When I was 17 in 1969 I worked at a gas station on the Indiana Toll Road . In the middle of nowhere and cornfields . My knowledge of the real world revolved around farming and small towns . A bankrobber made his gettaway ,cops on his tail , from Elkhart to our small plaza and took a patron hostage . An Indiana State Police Sharpshooter ended the escape with a well placed shot through the back window of the car . The hostage was rescued . In the 30 minutes this took to play out , I realised my little world was a whole lot bigger than I thought . You all have had life changing moments when you were very young that you never forget . Can you share one ?

Wow.

I was 17 years old. Living pretty crazy and wild on the streets. One day we were hanging out in the front yard with my bro and some friends. Some (bit older 25 yo or so) guy from down the road, was riding a Yamaha 400 up and down our street - really FAST. Drunk as a skunk, high as a kite on whatever. Lost it on our driveway entrance, flew through the air sideways chest forward, chest hit a 10 inch diameter tree. He gurgled a bit and he died right there - maybe 12 feet from where we were standing. I decided to make something of my life at that point.

Venice Motor Bikes · #5 03-15-2009, 12:35 PM

I prefer to use the word "shaped".
Many things have shaped my life in much different ways...
My kids are shaping my life; I want them to have a better life than I did & not have to live through what I have.
Another thing that shaped my life was seeing so many of my homeboys killed in gang wars, or from drugs & prison.
The fact is... that I almost died many times too, but I was very lucky.
I still live in the same neighborhood where I grew up... & I still have to be careful walking down the street! I also don't want those things to happen to my kids someday.

Retmachinist · #6 03-15-2009, 12:51 PM

I would say the day we flew out of Danang, Viet Nam and lit on the Aircraft Carrier in the middle of the Tonkin Gulf. Wow, did that ever open up my eyes to the small world I had been living in, in central Iowa. Several things in that next year changed me forever.

**Bikeguy Joe** · #7 03-15-2009, 04:41 PM

Let's see....
Telling my best friend I couldn't go out partying with him and missing the death ride he took late that night? (18 year old)

Watching a man die while I held his hand and he took his last breath? (28 years old)

Having a drunk driver hit me head on and not having a heartbeat for 3-4 minutes and being pronounced dead at the scene? (35 years old)

Getting "saved" and becoming a Christian a few years later? (39 years old)

Helping my mother die the way she wanted to? (43 years old)

All those have changed me.

I'm 47 years old now, and can't wait for the "next one".

**Bikeguy Joe** · #8 03-15-2009, 09:50 PM

Hey, waking up every day changes my life forever now.

leftywoody · #9 03-15-2009, 09:56 PM

I went out with a girl named Ashtabula she changed my life forever.

TexasDav · #10 03-15-2009, 11:42 PM

When I was 5 years old, I was playing in the mud with my little brother Charles, as we always played. Up to that point, life was perfect. I was secure, happy, and care free. We were just playing and in a blink of an eye the world changed. The realization that I and everyone I know will die someday hit me. I could not see why I was born to just die. and the thought of everyone I loved was going to die made me so sad, I ran to the house to ask my mother why did this have to be and she told me to not think of it and we all will be around a long long time. But from that point on, I never was the same, and had that other person living in the inside of me. I could be falling down drunk and he was always sober. I would do wrong and he would let me know the truth about myself.