What life experiences changed you? (Trigger warning added at OP's request by MNHQ)

[JustOneLastThing]

For me, having DS changed my life for the better.
Three miscarriages left me feeling raw
My divorce taught me to trust my feelings about relationships.
My new partner gave me hope where before there was just sadness.
I am not the same person I was a decade ago, but I feel like every thing caused a long lasting and profound change.

Mine may need a trigger warning

My children made me grow up & be more assertive & become myself/ my own person.

My Dsis dealing with her childhood shit helped me to deal with mine.

MN taught me about red flags & boundaries that my parents never taught me, because they walk all over them.... Not in an evil way just emotionally immature.

I've also become braver since having my children I don't want them to be afraid to have fun, I was scared of everything when I was a child, teen & in my twenties it really helps me back, whereas now I'm more feel the fear and just do it.

I've also learnt that sometimes the world is shit, good people do bad/stupid things & bad people do good things and then there's middle of the road people as well.

Have asked mnhq to alter the title.

Actually being a funeral director taught me that death isn't too be feared and that ceremony is important for humans.

Living abroad.
Motherhood.
Divorce.
New love, happiest I've ever been I think.
Cancer and being widowed.

Travellong
Going to university
Becoming a mother

3 miscarriages and 4 failed rounds of IVF has changed me forever. In some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse.

Seeing my nan in the funeral home weirdly made me mature but left me feeling incredibly peaceful. I feel like I have a new understanding of life and death.

• Travelled the world by myself in 2005
• Moved overseas with no job to go to, and without knowing anyone. Near 13 years later and I'm still here working for the first law firm I interviewed at.
• lost my younger brother to cancer when he was 28.

All the above changed me to my core.

My father dying when I was 15 - shattered my home life

An emotionally abusive boyfriend who I allowed to treat me badly for a year followed by a very long period of being single while I re-found my spirit - followed by falling in love with the loveliest kindest man with whom I now have two gorgeous daughters

Taking acid in Ibiza. I've never been quite the same since.

My son attempting to take his life. My ex husband having affairs and his drug addiction.

Moving to England as a child. I always consider this a catalyst for bad things in my life but looking back now I actually think it was something else I'm not quite ready to talk about.
Being redeployed in work twice. Taught me not to care about a job in any way whatsoever unfortunately.
Having my kids. It's been a blessing and a curse in equal measure at times, but mainly positive. It's been the absolute making of me in a lot of ways.
Lockdown has given me the mental space and clarity I needed in my life.
Losing my sister last month to cancer has been really hard and already I can feel shockwaves in my life.

Phoning the police on my own dc knowing I could never see them again...

Death of a parent when I was 20.
Marriage
Children

DM re-marrying and uprooting us 15 miles to a different town when I was 7. I went from happy and confident to never quite feeling like I fitted in.

My DMs trauma has been a great shadow over my life. From her own upsetting birth story, to the loss of her first child, living thousands of miles from her family, divorce, toxic relationships. Her experiences have had a profound impact on me and will continue to do so.

I've been lucky to experience sincere, longlasting, deep and meaningful friendships, which have shaped me.

Sudden death of a friend when we were 16/17 and moving cities around the same time.

Childbirth and my children.

Moving hundreds of miles away from my hometown as an adult.

A walk in the park in 2014 has totally changed my life. I was bitten by a tick, caught Lyme disease and have been housebound and disabled ever since. Lost my job, my partner, many friends and a huge amount of savings (spent on years of private treatment which hasn't yet been successful).

Working on a Covid Unit. Left me traumatised. Haven't had a full nights sleep since. Councelling and drugs didn't help but running does. I run for miles.