Ok this could be fun or not :P

Dad Dying (3 years old) When dad died of heart disease I was too young to understand but in my life this was a huge changing point for me, I'd probably have been a completely different person with an entirely different life if he'd not died. I have always been undecided if it was a good or bad thing but I know I will never know so have decided to learn to cope with my life the best I can. This did however teach me that everyone dies and that the only thing you can hope to do is to achieve something lasting a legacy if you will in your lifetime. I'm my dad's legacy and I hope to do him proud.

Being Bullied in Junior School No age here because it was a slow progressive problem that shaped me, it made me different because no matter how much people tried to break me down I was too strong to give up and just leave the school (though in my mom's eyes that was never an option) This eventually came to a head in year 6 when I had confronted the main bully in my year when he no longer had his older brother there to back him up. I won that fight and learnt that no matter what happened you could survive anything so long as you wanted to.

Highschool (11 - 16 years old) Well what can I say, bullying was rife here and I know I was no stranger to being accused of being one of them either though the irony was I was accused of being the bully of the guy responsible for me being bullied because he was smaller than me. I learnt a lot about how to fight and how to survive fights, when to run and when to stand firm. I regret growing to hate some subjects because of certain teachers as it made it so that I did not perform my greatest in high school and that reflected in my GCSE exam grades.

Going to College (16 years old) I decided to go to a proper college over sixth form at my school (which was a local college) This was perhaps the single most important decision I had made in my adult life, I went here and free from 90% of the people in my highschool I learnt to be less shy/quiet around people when I met them, this was helped along by a girl I met early on in college called Hana. Hana helped me learn I was just as cool and happy as any other person and through her bringing out what many people have said was/is the best in me I became a popular guy amongst both my classmates and the other students of the college. I learnt to accept myself for who and what I was and not to put too much demand on myself and found a "home" amongst the punks, skaters, goths of the college. Many remember the old days of 2001 - 2002 at barnet college with fondness as a huge group of the "alternatives" were all good friends. Unfortunately eventually everything had to end and the group which I had helped form pulled itself apart and we each went our own ways, mine would lead to my disrupting my college education with absence and the eventual quitting of the courses I had taken after my ICT course so as to preserve my CV from saying I was kicked out of college for having a measly 9% attendance. A rollercoaster ride of sex (there was many girls who I met and bedded in the college years, many more than any one man had a right to bed. I was always lucky in my own opinion not to get any STDs), drugs (yes I used many drugs in college though only my use of cannabis and the occasional "toke" on a crack joint was by choice) and rock 'n' roll.

Not moving in with my older brother (17 years old) My older brother asked me to move in with him when my sister was pregnant and about to give birth to her eldest child. I decided not to move in due to the fact that I had been studying at college for a year now. If I left to go to the local college I'd have had to start all over again. This decision was a major life changing motion if I had moved in with him I would have been in a much better posi<b></b>tion now, I'm damn sure I would have qualified from college with better grades. I'm also damn sure I would have my drivers liscence and a car by now along with a decent job or be a uni student somewhere. I consider this THE worst mistake ever in my life. I have made many screw ups but the decision not to move in with my older brother was by far the biggest.

Cardiac and Respiratory arrest due to spiking (17 years old) I was clubbing with the people from college from the age of 17, I know it was illegal and it was probably stupid but I was drinking like a damn fish most of the damn time in pubs anyway so this was the next logical step. I remember the first time I went clubbing with people from college however it did not go well. The girl I went with and me drank a lot, I remember having 4 cans (500ml) of Fosters beer and around 1/2 a litre of vodka (neat) I was trashed as it was but knew I was so was drinking water if anything except for when I met a girl inside the club. My friend had gone somewhere and being drunk I couldn't find her so I'm talking to this girl, she was attractive from what I remember otherwise I wouldn't have been bothered by her. Her mate had gone got her a drink but she didn't feel well so she gave me what would be my first Jack and Coke ever. Unfortunately she didn't feel well because her mate had decided to spike her with Ketamin. This was in an effort to either make her lighten up or to knock her for six so he could stand a better chance of getting with her (date rape) I drank her drink and sometime later was discovered by my friend and a bouncer passed out when they got me in to the street to try and help me they found out I was in fact not passed out but not breathing and with no pulse. I was essentially dead. Thankfully I was brought back by cpr and mouth to mouth performed by my friend and the bouncer under the supervision of a trainee paramedic who had been kicked out for pushing a girl over (she'd bitten him it turned out thus he pushed her away and she fell over) Eventually an ambulance arrived for me but my mate at the advice of the guy who'd helped them get me back had brought (and sat there and fed me) Chips and milk to make my stomach curdle and cause me to be sick. I was concious and able to stand without help so when asked if I wanted to go hospital by the paramedic I answered "No, I'm standing, I'm concious...I'll live. Smurf off and save someone who needs saving!" legendary words from my mouth everyone knew them the next time I went to the same club and even though I hadn't gone for a month I was remembered by the staff, the trainee paramedic and many others who had either seen me or heard about my incident. This gave me more friends and it did give me a cavalier attitude towards life. I'll die when I die nothing I can do to prevent that but hell I'm going to live before I die!

Standing up for my sister and the ensuring shattered jaw (17 years old) My sister was dating a guy named Victor, he was an absoloute asshole of that there was no doubt, what on earth made her believe having a child with him would sort out their relationship problems or stop him beating her up I don't know. However she'd made sure she'd welcomed him to move in to our home already so he was there. I generally stayed out of the arguments until one day waking up as usual to the sounds of arguing I went to the top of the stairs and saw him go to punch my sister when she was holding his 3 month if that old son. I normally kept my cellphone on me 24/7 yet this day I was charging it and I hadn't grabbed it on my way to the stairs. I should have kept my mouth shut but when my mom tried to call the police he grabbed the phone and smashed it, he also punched my mom...seeing this made me do something even I didn't expect I threatened him I told him straight there was more than one phone in the house and more than one person in the street willing to call the cops on him. His reply was "I dare you" I never heard the end of the sentence I had already gone upstairs and grabbed my cellphone and dialled 999. He burst in to my room as I'm on the phone to the police threatening me and screaming about how he fights men not boys (he was 23 and from a violently aggressive irish family who were known for getting in to pub brawls) as he's got in to the room he punched me in the face 4 times, each punch sent my head ricocheting off the wall but sheer determination kept me standing and concious, little did I know that each punch broke my upper jaw in several places between the two canine teeth and knocked out my two upper incisor teeth. When he had finished beating me up he fled the house realizing that this time he had overstepped the mark. I calmly picked my cellphone up and asked for police and an ambulance and gave the address. When the police officers arrived they were surprised I was concious and said even grown men had no shame crying in pain if my injury hurt my reply was "I'm fine! Just get me to the hospital!" I went to hospital, my two incisors unfortunately were not able to be fitted in to the jaw again due to the fact that the bone was too badly shattered for any reconstructive work to begin. I never cried over the injury and have never cried in pain since. I've spent a great deal of time in the dentists chair to have this rectified as best as possible and hopefully I will be able to get another bout of work in the dentists chair soon to provide me with a better designed permanent fixture to the jaw. (yes my front two upper teeth are prosthetics)

Proposing to Julie/Jess/Twisted Tinkerbell/Kitten (20 years old) This was perhaps one of my more foolish ideas. I'd met Julie about a year prior when I was 19, she'd been 17 at the time and the only thing that made me even consider dating her was the fact that her 18th was in about 6 weeks from the date we met. We'd been together around a year and on my 20th birthday I proposed to her I was young, foolish and in love (I use young as in the term naive/immature not physical age since I'm only 22 now) I'll forever hold the memories of my 20th as bittersweet.

The EOFF UK 3rd meetup (20 years old) I was still technically 20 when this went down and it introduced me to Jack, Psy, Baloki, Amratis (who later would be instrumental in helping me cope with problems) These guys I had only spoken to on EOFF suddenly became real 3d people and whats more I loved them they were totally awesome and exactly how I expected them to be, it was perhaps one of the last times myself and Julie were truly happy together. I owe to this event some of my best friends, some great times and probably a whole lot more I'm unwilling/unable to say on this forum.

Splitting up with Julie (21 years old This was a definining moment until this point I had considered myself able to cope with anything, in 2002 I'd split up with a girl whom I had loved and her leaving me had been pretty damn hard especially since it was a very protracted experience and countless other relationships in college and the intervening years had left me jaded and dis-enchanted about relationships. The whole shutting off your emotions experience was nothing new to me but this was a lesson that no matter how much you learnt you can be brought low. I was in a real bad way, the girl had been troubled and I'd spent the last few years since meeting her sorting her life out. I'd forgotten to deal with my own demons and in my lowest point I did several things that are not me normally. I eventually pulled through due to help from my friends who I'd met at the meetup and a few of the people I knew in London.

Meeting Agrias on EOFF (21 years old) Agrias and me met because of random stuff to do with the meetups for canada and england I was organising the english one she was organising the canadian one we got talking on msn and well she made me feel like few others had for a while she made the flirt who had been around prior to Julie come back to the surface and I revelled in it. She also noticed a few things my friends and I had missed in my recovery over the 5 months or so between the break up with Julie and meeting Agrias, she in typical style demanded I simply stop being like that and that I be more me. I listened to her simple soloution and liked it and heeded it for the first time since I had quit college I was ME again. I felt like I could take on the world and without Agrias' help I doubt I would have been able to feel this way again for quite a long time, she probably singlehandedly helped me recover fully 6 months ahead of what I would have done if I hadn't got talking to her. I know it sounds like I'm full of about this but it's the truth she helped and thanks Aggy, I could never repay that.

The Emo UK EOFF Meetup (21 years old) I think I was one of the only people not being emo at this meetup. Met The Undead Hero and made another firm friend he's awesome and great Psy showed his face for a few hours even though he was ill and we all met the elusive Miles. The Reason we called it the Emo EOFF meetup was because Miles and Loki were quite down or withdrawn, Jack was complaining at times because he was "lonely" (but that didn't stop him having sex in one of the hotel rooms with a girl he knew that lived in Birmingham and keeping me, Amratis and Hero from getting sleep as Pie and Zorander were in our room talking to us) I was confused about a few things in my life at that time. Amratis however was just being emo because this guy she liked was being difficult.(you'll notice I spent a lot of time talking to Amy to cheer her up that weekend, a lot of pictures show me and her acting like kids together) We phoned Agrias that weekend on my cellphone from Birmingham quite a bit (that cost me around £60 on credit btw along with calling other EOFF members such as Shauna and BoB and so on) Still I had a good time with the guys and girls of EOFF again and this made me slightly more determined to work on another meetup for next year even though a lack of interest and once being implied we were a group of pedos in the thread ect.

Turning 22 This made me pay attention fast, Jack and Psy came to my birthday and unfortunately all my other friends who had said they would cancelled on me last minute. I had a great time however, thanks to Jack being in town with nothing to do when I'd been up 4 days straight I went out on the town looking shattered but in a hyper active mood where I was up for anything and thanks to that mood and a gentle kicking up the backside from Jack I met the girl I am now in a relationship with. Psy again ill showed up on the day and whilst he didn't drink he did help make my birthday a blast with our great Jackassing Jack event (for details you'll have to get me and Psy on msn :P) It also made me realize I wasn't a kid anymore and has kicked me in to gear trying to get a decent job or atleast one that pays more than my current one.