Brushing my teeth. I’ve been through progressive hard depression from an early age. Yeah. It’s not much

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Remember Valentine’s day 2004, when San Francisco county started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples?

Thousands of couples showed up. Some from the other side of the planet, some from the other side of town. The County Clerk was overwhelmed and there weren’t nearly enough wedding officiants to keep up. So they put out a call for volunteers to be deputized by the Clerk as county marriage commissioners. I volunteered and officiated at dozens of ceremonies at city hall.

Still have my official commission hanging on my wall.

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I’m 20. I haven’t made it big but I’ve moved into a place with my best friend, have paid off my car without help from my dad, have a steady job making good money, can work on my own car, and have friends that make good company. I’d say I’m proud from getting all of this in the 2 years since high school

Went back to school in my mid-30s, just for my AA. But it got my foot in the door to a great field and now the upwards momentum is almost limitless.

I’m not really looking to be some big shot, as I prefer work balanced, but I love that I’m not stuck where I was before.

I have three kids. I was present for the birth of the youngest two. But I adopted my oldest. She was 12 so she had to tell the judge she was OK with it. I told her it came with two conditions: Nothing between us needed to change and she didn’t have to call me “Dad”. She calls me by first name to my face but she calls me “dad” behind my back. I’ll take it.

An unhoused woman recently asked me if I’d buy her some food at a fast food joint. I said ok because I think I have a moral obligation to help anyone who asks for food if I can afford to. She ordered the largest multi-item meal they offered (think bucket of chicken). The person ringing it up offered to do a smaller combo, but I said fuck it and let her get the largest. I figured she might have people to feed other than herself and it’s not like I couldn’t afford to let her indulge.

The reason I’m proud on this is because I changed myself into this compassionate person where once there was an angry person filled with hate. This is the product of years of therapy and deliberate self-work. I’m also proud of finally being able to love myself. That happened in 2019-2020.

Just cleaned up my whole apartment. I don’t think I’ve ever lived anywhere where the whole place is this clean. I normally deep clean one area then stop and by the time i clean the next area the first ones dirty again. Everything is sorted nicely, got stuff hung up that I’ve been putting off, vacuumed in every corner, the whole works. I’m exhausted but super proud

I quit smoking. Had too many downsides to be justifiable.

Going to talk therapy. Getting married and having kids really pushed me and helps me keep going on the hardest days. I cannot have mental illness affect their lives like it did mine growing up.

my mom started teaching deaf kids at a school in my hometown. this school is mostly attended by kids from poor families and some from nearby villages. the funding of this school is very small, and not much is provided to help prepare classes. note that my mom never knew how to speak sign language but she was very determined to learn to to.

my mom also wasn’t pc-literate and was previously not keen on learning to use it but in order to excel (pun not intended) at her position she was required to learn to use word and other teaching tools on the computer.

so i helped her get started and showed her how to prepare her classes using images and she was quite a fast learner and resources online to learn sign language, but i was especially happy to find some amazing tools that had kid friendly animations which helped her teach them to write and speak sign language

something that really touched me is that one day, her work computer was malfunctioning so i had to visit her and fix it for her. when i walked in, her students didn’t recognize me so they asked her who i was, and when she told them i was her son who got her those learning tools they became ecstatic and signed how grateful they were to be able to meet me in real life

they’re mostly 8-14yo and were marginalized especially since the class they attended was previously discontinued and they had no other way to become literate and integrate a bit more into society. ive sat through some of her sessions and ill never forget the look in their eyes and how happy and excited to learn they all were

they went on to get their 6th grade diploma and some of them even continued their studies beyond that, im also proud of my mom who helped save them and at least be more literate, even though its not much to a full education but its about as good as it gets given the circumstances

Raising two kids with my wife and being a very supportive friend to someone who is raising their first child on their own.

Small thing, but I pride myself on it.

It just so happens I’m proud of something I did two hours ago as I write this sentence. A friend of mine said they needed a constant companion for the time being, and another friend said they needed a certain demographic to be friends with, and after realizing the first friend fell under that demographic, I thought “wait, do these two people know each other”. Three hours ago as I write this sentence, I introduced them, and they really hit it off. I just made three people very happy.

Stuff keeps breaking in my house. I hate fixing the stuff, but I always feel super proud when it’s done.

In the last month I replaced an electrical outlet that released its magic smoke when the electric griddle cord short circuited. I replaced the igniter in our gas oven. And just today I replaced the insinkerator garbage disposal that started leaking water under the sink.