{"id":5876,"date":"2019-12-10T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/?p=5876"},"modified":"2019-12-12T15:36:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:36:02","slug":"my-ten-biggest-accomplishments-of-this-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/2019\/12\/my-ten-biggest-accomplishments-of-this-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"My Ten Biggest Accomplishments of This Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m going to make three posts here about the approaching change of the decade; two will be looking back, one looking forward. So with >1% of the 2010s remaining, let’s get started…<\/p>\n

First, when I look back over the 99% of this decade that I’ve lived through, I wanted to once more acknowledge the biggest accomplishments in my life since January 1, 2010.<\/p>\n

These are the things I’m most proud of. So don’t whine and say, “But we became friends this decade, wasn’t that a good thing?” or, “We did that event together a few years ago, I though you had fun doing that?” Yes, yes, your friendship is a good thing, and so many events were fun, but I’m not talking about good or fun here, I’m talking about pride. Taking pride in big accomplishments.<\/p>\n

So, here goes. Here are the ten things I am most proud of this decade, in order of pride:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Isla<\/a> and Emmett<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Obviously I have to start with my kids, right? I began this decade with one child; I end it with three. Isla came in to my life in 2010, and Emmett in 2014. They’re great. For a few years, I wondered if Owen was destined to be an only child, and I am so glad it didn’t turn out that way. They’re a good group, the whole lot of them.<\/p>\n

    2. Graduated Hamline<\/a><\/p>\n

    When the decade began, my education consisted of an Associate’s degree from Century College,\u00a0plus four credits from Hamline. As the decade progressed, I slooowly racked up another 65 credits at Hamline and, in the spring of 2017, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. 4.0 GPA, too. I still can’t believe it. As a friend once phrased it, I really did go far with my education as long as I remember how far behind I started.<\/p>\n

    3. Published author<\/a><\/p>\n

    In October 2013, my book Deliverance at Hand!: The Redemption of a Devout Jehovah’s Witness <\/em>was published via Freethought House. Ever since I was in my early teens, I’d \"71UlN9sPwfL\"wanted to publish a book, so this was a longtime in coming. I was very proud to have accomplished it.<\/p>\n

    4. Bought a house<\/a><\/p>\n

    In August 2011, I bought a house. My first night sleeping in it was on September 10th of that year. I’d purchased two houses before, but this\u00a0one is by far my favorite. I’ll say it again: I love my house. I loved it then, and I love it more now that I (with copious assistance from lots of friends) have made tremendous improvements everywhere on the property.<\/p>\n

    5. Performed weddings<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you’ve read my book (see above), you’ll know that, in 1998, my sister asked me to perform her wedding. Due to a rule-obsessed cult and an insecure uncle, it didn’t happen. But I set it as my goal that I would somehow, one day, perform a wedding ceremony. That day finally came on July 10, 2010. I have since performed 17 weddings, including small \"1276169_10201914715298689_27707676_o\"affairs in people’s living rooms, on docks, and in prisons; and large ceremonies in churches, community centers, and historic sites. I’ve performed weddings between a man and a woman, between two men, and between\u00a0two women. And, on September 9, 2017, I did perform my sister’s wedding.<\/p>\n

    6. Toastmasters<\/a><\/p>\n

    In late 2010, I joined Toastmasters. After leaving the JWs, I was actually disappointed that I didn’t have as many speeches to give anymore. My father-in-law suggested I join Toastmasters, but I didn’t have the time or money. But then, a club was started right at my job! I could go during lunch, and I my company would pick up the membership tab! It was perfect. I have since served as the club’s Secretary, VP of Education, and President. I also served a year as District Director, have both hosted and competed in speech competitions, have been a club sponsor, and am currently ranked as Competent Communicator\u00a0Gold and Competent Leader Silver. The above link takes you to the details of my very first speech in the club.<\/p>\n

    7. Little Free Library<\/a><\/p>\n

    I am the proud steward of Little Free Library #33249. The library was completed, \"24.-Kids-demonstrating\"installed, and opened for business on November 29, 2015. Click the link above to read my tale of building it and registering it. And click this link<\/a> to read how I first discovered Little Free Libraries.<\/p>\n

    8. Promotion<\/p>\n

    Well, I’m not big on talking about my work life here, but I guess it’s a big deal I got a promotion in August of 2015. It was my first promotion in over ten years, actually, and I just barely missed receiving any promotions at all in my 30s. (I was promoted about two months before turning 30, and then received this promotion a month after turning 40). The cool thing was, I managed to get the promotion without having yet scored the requisite degree (see #2, above).<\/p>\n

    9. NCUR<\/p>\n

    NCUR, or the National Conference of Undergraduate Research<\/a>, is an annual conference that brings together undergrads from schools all over the country and from all disciplines to present their original research. I was honored to be invited to represent Hamline’s<\/p>\n

    \"Here's

    Here’s Hamline’s group photo from NCUR 2015 in Spokane. I am near the right, at back.<\/p><\/div>\n

    History department not once, not twice, but thrice. This was all the more amazing since, unlike nearly all other students, I was not majoring in that field (I was working on a History minor), nor was I attempting an honors project. In 2015, I was able to attend NCUR in Spokane, Washington. In 2016, I attended in Asheville, North Carolina. And in 2017, I attended in Memphis, Tennessee. I enjoyed delivering my presentations, listening to other presentations, meeting new people, being with my classmates, and seeing the local sites. I had a wonderful experience each time.<\/p>\n

    10. Nine New States Visited<\/p>\n

    I have a very long life-goal of stepping foot in all 50 states. In 1998, I visited Texas – which was the 19th state on my list…and there my goal stalled for over 17 years. In fact, here’s a post from 2013<\/a> in which I bemoan traveling all over the country, yet not getting to any new states in a long, long time. And here’s a post from 2015<\/a> in which I celebrate that I’d ratcheted things up to 24 states. In 2016, I passed the halfway mark when I landed in North Carolina (see #9, above), and I’m still, slowly but surely, ploughing forward. I am now at 28 states. The nine states I visited for the first time in the 2010s are (in order of visit): Washington, Idaho, Utah, Rhode Island, Oregon, North Carolina, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Connecticut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’m going to make three posts here about the approaching change of the decade; two will be looking back, one looking forward. So with >1% of the 2010s remaining, let’s get started… First, when I look back over the 99% of this decade that I’ve lived through, I wanted to once more acknowledge the biggest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5876"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5930,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5876\/revisions\/5930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zimmerscope.com\/Verbisaurus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}