Greatest Accomplishments

What are your five greatest accomplishments?

Hmmm...this is another one where I feel like there are obvious answers like "my relationship with God" (which is more His accomplishment) or "my family", but I feel like these aren't really "accomplishments", but more gifts of grace. I feel a bit weird calling relationships accomplishments, because it also gives the notion that they are static and finished, when of course they are dynamic and require constant attention.

However, if I take away awesome relationships, could I even come up with five other things I have accomplished? I'm not really sure I could! So let's just see where this goes...

1. Graduating from college - I feel good about this one not because it is super-important to life, but more because I think I am the first one in my family to actually do so, or at least to earn a Bachelor's degree. People in my family have attended college, gotten AA degrees, gotten certification in all kinds of awesome things, but I am either the first or one of a few that stuck it out to have a Bachelor's. So, that's pretty cool. A big part of this was also learning to adapt and live in another country (Australia). Even though they speak English, Australia is a vastly different place than America! So I'm proud of myself for becoming an honorary Aussie, too.

2. Marriage and Motherhood - See, I couldn't even get halfway through this list without mentioning a relationship! Ha. But now that I'm thinking about it, since you DO have to work at it every day, I guess marriage is an accomplishment if you stick with it and constantly work at having a healthy one. Your dad and I have only made it 5.5 years so far, but since there is so much divorce in our family, I guess we have something to be proud of as we continue to try and sacrificially love each other day in and day out. And motherhood is as difficult as it is rewarding; I have to try very hard every day to be patient and unselfish and forgiving, because these do not come naturally to me! So I guess I'm going to go ahead and name these as accomplishments, even though it is all accomplished in God's grace.

3. Becoming Entrepreneurial - This is an accomplishment because I always considered myself extremely unambitious in anything business-related. But my friend Erin pointed out that not only have I marketed and sold things I've made myself (like in an Etsy shop and elsewhere), but also taught private singing lessons and group lessons for children! Without even thinking about it too hard, I guess I do have a little bit of an entrepreneurial spirit after all! It's not my passion, but I can do it when I need the money! =)

4. Learning to Play the Piano - I started teaching myself when I was a teenager and I haven't stopped learning since! I definitely did a lot of learning in college, when I had my dearest Ludmila Beliavskaia as my teacher...she taught me the right way and the classical way. But, when your dad and I were just friends and trying to get a very small ministry on it's feet, I was called upon to be the worship leader. I was terrified and terrible at worship-leading on a piano, but after years and years of practice, I am starting to be more and more comfortable behind the piano and in front of the congregation. I have gotten to the point where I don't always have to be looking at my fingers, which is huge! ha ha.

5. Staying in One Place - My whole life I haven't lived in one house for very long, even if I lived in the same city. I think the years from 7th-12th grade is the longest I've lived in one city, even though we moved houses and I moved schools while we lived there. Anyway, the point is that we've been in San Jose for about five years now and I don't foresee us moving anytime soon. So, this is the longest I've spent in one place as an adult. Not to say I haven't dreamed (and let's face it, still do dream) about other places and parallel lives I could be living somewhere else. But I'm still here! I'm sticking it out with the Dwell community, as your dad's wife and as your mama. This is big for me.

There you have it! I have also written a novel, although no one would ever mistake it for the next Great American Novel... and not a Nobel Prize or cure for cancer on the list. But I'm not even 30 yet, so you never know. ;)

And speaking of accomplishments, I'm halfway through this series of 30 things AND I just celebrated my 20,000th all-time page view of this blog! (It only took me years and years to get there, but hey! Slow and steady, right?)