Sunday Stealing: The “I’ve come to realize … ” Meme

This week’s meme comes from Ukok’s Place.

The “I’ve come to real­ize … ” Meme

1. I’ve come to real­ize that my chest-size … is pro­por­tional to the rest of my body.

2. I’ve come to real­ize that my job … is per­fect for me. I earn my daily bread doing what I was meant to do.

3. I’ve come to real­ize that when I’m dri­ving … I use the time alone to think, ana­lyze, strate­gize, and make impor­tant decisions.

4. I’ve come to real­ize that I need … peace, quiet, soli­tude, clean­li­ness, tidi­ness, order, struc­ture, and orga­ni­za­tion in order to flourish.

5. I’ve come that real­ize that I have lost … my tol­er­ance for a life that is not char­ac­ter­ized by peace, quiet, soli­tude, clean­li­ness, tidi­ness, order, struc­ture, and orga­ni­za­tion. I no longer have any patience with or abil­ity to func­tion in an envi­ron­ment char­ac­ter­ized by chaos, drama, clut­ter or disorganization.

6. I’ve come to real­ize that I hate it when … I fail to lis­ten to or dis­re­gard that “still, small voice” that speaks to all of us from time to time. I am always sorry when, look­ing back, I real­ize that had I lis­tened and heeded that “still, small voice” things would have turned out better.

7. I’ve come to real­ize that if I’m drunk … some­one has abducted me and forced me to drink copi­ous amounts of alco­hol. I rarely drink and I never get drunk.

8. I’ve come to real­ize that money … is merely a means to an end. Noth­ing more. Noth­ing less.

9. I’ve come to real­ize that cer­tain peo­ple … don’t like me and that is their prob­lem. Not mine. They can just put a bag over their own heads and deal with it. I have nei­ther the time nor energy to waste car­ing about it. Because I like me and I have spent my entire life work­ing to achieve a level of con­fi­dence, self-esteem, and sense of self-worth to be able to say that and mean it. You can’t please every­one and I am no longer will­ing to lose sleep over that inescapable truth.

10. I’ve come to real­ize that I’ll always … wish that time travel were pos­si­ble so that I could go back and re-live cer­tain turn­ing points in my life and make dif­fer­ent deci­sions. That desire is quite nor­mal. But I don’t believe in regret, so when some­thing reminds me of those times and events, I spend no more than a fleet­ing moment con­cen­trat­ing on them.

The Hickok girls posed on the front lawn of the home­stead in hap­pier times (1960).

11. I’ve come to real­ize that my sib­ling … does not care about me or my chil­dren, as evi­denced by her behav­ior. She cares only about her so-called friends and social sta­tus, rather than her only fam­ily mem­bers. Last year, I real­ized that to con­tinue attempt­ing to have a rela­tion­ship with her was destruc­tive and hurt­ful for me. Every time I saw or spoke with her, I came away from the expe­ri­ence with the strong sense that she wanted me to feel badly about myself and my chil­dren — lesser than her and her chil­dren. Thus, I finally had to admit that my rela­tion­ship with her was toxic and broke off all com­mu­ni­ca­tion with her. After sev­eral months, I met her for lunch and tried to talk with her about our rela­tion­ship, hop­ing that she might have missed me and could come to under­stand my feel­ings. It was a com­plete dis­as­ter. As I looked into her eyes, I saw for the first time that they were cold, unfeel­ing, and quite life­less. At that rev­e­la­tory moment, I real­ized that her eyes had always been that way and, dur­ing the months I had not spo­ken to her, I thought that I had missed her, but I was wrong. Instead, I had missed the sis­ter I always wanted to have, but — I had to finally admit — have never had. Or, at least, have never had since we both became adults. I left the restau­rant and when I got home, sent her an email telling her that I could not be involved in a toxic rela­tion­ship with her. I am com­pletely at peace with both the clar­ity I finally achieved and my decision.

12. I’ve come to real­ize that my mom … was the cat­a­lyst for my unhealthy rela­tion­ship with my sis­ter. She fos­tered com­pe­ti­tion and ani­mos­ity between us, reg­u­larly pit­ting us against each other. The cur­rent sta­tus of our rela­tion­ship is the inevitable result. I’m not angry with my mother … she was a flawed, bruised per­son — aren’t we all? — who did the best she could. I have never doubted that my mother always did what she thought was the right thing and, in light of that fact, find it impos­si­ble to hold onto any anger about her behavior.

13. I’ve come to real­ize that my cell phone … is no longer sat­is­fac­tory. Now that the iPhone 3GS is avail­able, you know I’m going to have to upgrade from my iPhone 3G!

14. I’ve come to real­ize that when I woke up this morn­ing … I was grate­ful for my eye­sight, just as I am each and every morn­ing. Any­one who has sur­vived the threat­ened loss of one of their senses will con­firm that the expe­ri­ence is life-altering.

15. I’ve come to real­ize that last night before I went to sleep … was the sec­ond and, hope­fully, last night that I will have to spend com­fort­ing and reas­sur­ing Sophie. She was dis­traught by the sound of fire­works com­ing from Lodi Lake and fire­crack­ers being set off around town.

16. I’ve come to real­ize that right now I am think­ing … that I should be start­ing on all of the items on today’s “to do” list rather than par­tic­i­pat­ing in this meme!

17. I’ve come to real­ize that my dad … was extremely intel­li­gent and wise, even though he did not attend or grad­u­ate from high school. He had a droll sense of humor and, as it turns out, was quite pre­scient. If he were here, he’d have his hands on his hips, giv­ing me his “I told you so” look. Who knows? Maybe he is.

18. I’ve come to real­ize that when I get on Face­book … I enjoy read­ing the updates posted by my friends, but I really enjoy log­ging on to see that I have new friend requests.

19. I’ve come to real­ize that today … is going to be a lovely day — not too hot — and should be fol­lowed by a typ­i­cally cool sum­mer evening.

20. I’ve come to real­ize that tonight … I will stay at home and, if I get every­thing on my “to do” list done, relax a bit by watch­ing a movie.

21. I’ve come to real­ize that tomor­row … I will be meet­ing an old friend for lunch. I haven’t seen her in many years, but we recon­nected on Face­book. I’m look­ing for­ward to see­ing her and catch­ing up!

22. I’ve come to real­ize that I really want to … con­clude my cur­rent house-hunting adven­ture by sign­ing a con­tract and clos­ing escrow on the per­fect home. Alas … I have no con­fi­dence that I will ever find a home that I both like enough to buy and can com­fort­ably afford.

23. I’ve come to real­ize that the per­son mostly likely to repost this is … Bud.

24. I’ve come to real­ize that life … seems to move at a faster pace each and every year, just like all of the “old folks” told me it would.

25. I’ve come to real­ize that this week­end …will fly by and I will find myself back in the office next Mon­day morn­ing, won­der­ing how my two-week vaca­tion could pos­si­bly be over so quickly. (See #24 above.)

26. I’ve real­ized the best music to lis­ten to when I am upset … is some­thing melodic, poignant, and inspiring.

27. I’ve come to real­ize that my friends … are a patient, loyal group of folks for whom I am extremely thankful.

28. I’ve come to real­ize that this year … is a water­shed time in my life upon which I will look back on as the point when many things changed forever.

29. I’ve come to real­ize that my exes … sym­bol­ize lessons learned. ‘Nuff said.

30. I’ve come to real­ize that maybe I should … write in more detail here about the changes that are tak­ing place in my life, but I am not yet ready to do that, largely because I’m not exactly sure what the future holds. Things are evolv­ing, falling into place … options are being weighed, deci­sions made. The only thing I will say at this point is that the sta­tus quo has changed and will change even more in the near future.

31. I’ve come to real­ize that I love … my chil­dren more and more as they grow and mature. My appre­ci­a­tion of their wis­dom, intel­lect, senses of humor, and the uncon­di­tional sup­port they pro­vide me grows each day.

32. I’ve come to real­ize that I don’t under­stand … why I didn’t under­stand a lot of things much ear­lier in my life. Some­times I see a per­son, sit­u­a­tion or event so clearly and real­ize that no one/nothing has changed except my abil­ity to com­pre­hend. I find myself say­ing, “Why didn’t I see that before? Has she/he/it always been like that?” Usu­ally, the answer is “yes.” It’s like liv­ing in a V-8 com­mer­cial, com­plete with me thunk­ing myself on the fore­head, yelling, “Doh!” at myself.

33. I’ve come to real­ize my past … is just that. Past. Passed. Over. Finite. Kaput. No do-overs allowed. Move on.

34. I’ve come to real­ize that par­ties … are fun for short peri­ods of time, but when I am done being around peo­ple, I am totally done and need to go home to expe­ri­ence some of that peace and soli­tude ref­er­enced above.

35. I’ve come to real­ize that I’m totally ter­ri­fied … of very few things with the excep­tion of some­thing hor­rific hap­pen­ing to one/both of my chil­dren or my eye­sight dete­ri­o­rat­ing to the point that I lose my abil­ity to work and be independent.

36. I’ve come to real­ize that my life … has not turned out the way I envi­sioned it when I was a young girl. In most ways, it is bet­ter than I imag­ined it would be.

Click here to see the list of other par­tic­i­pants and read their responses!

Tech­no­rati Tags: Sun­day Steal­ing, The “I’ve come to real­ize … ” Meme

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