I never forget the night at the age of 13 years that my older brother had a serious accident while driving in foggy conditions, resulting in the death of a mother and child in our car and resulted in a fractured skull for me. I guess I am grateful that I lived through it. Thereafter, my confidence was destroyed, but I did manage to marry and had 3 children, all of whom have been great kids.

A little twist on #9. I was in 2nd grade and Rodney and I were in love so decided to trade moms ( as a way of declaring love). However, both of our father's said NO!. My dad didn't hold back on why. It was the first time I realized I wasn't Black. (In East Chicago, IN, whites were the minority.)

The feeling of the first tiny flutter of movement during a first pregnancy.

There are too many to pick just one. Try the building of the Berlin wall while I was still stationed in Berlin, the assassination of JFK, MLK and Bobbie Kennedy' the Cuban Missile crsis (I was still in the reserves and was put on alert to be ready to move out within hours); Watergate, the resignation of Nixon, and on, and on -- with the worst being the election of Trump!

I got damn good memory and my server is full of events... ask me what I forgot, I am sure I will find it in the backup drive. Like they say a smell, a face, a song, can trigger a bucket full of memories... there is one that I tend to put away and never ever talked about for about 20 years. I was carjack and talked my way out of being murdered, within an hour they murdered somebody else and tried to pin it on me since they had my car. But is a moment in that event what brings me back to mention here... There was a moment when with a gun in my head and another in my ribs I could had tried to grab the wheel and produce an accident with an incoming police car. The "Fucked we all gonna die here right now" went thru my mind because I grew up living like that "you could die at any moment I lost my first best friend at age 11 you know". Yet, I thought I could manage and handle this because being alive was more important than the thugs next to me, my wife was 8 months pregnant with 2nd child. Always wonder how so many people may had encounter a similar dilemma and not come out alive. And to think how different the life of my wife would had been, My 2nd daughter never meeting her father, My son never been born. I am just lucky... Everything to me is a joke, not that important, gravy and toppings because of that moment. Nobody I know appreciate life more than me. Same as you guys. I realized I really know what is like to be alive. So as many of you feel the same way about your love for life. I enjoy everything even tapping hard my finger with a hammer, every wound and scar is Life to me and glorified in its own way. My last negative adventure, I felt and broke my face with a lot of blood pouring, in the ER nurses were talking had he seen his face? Intoxicated and medicated as I was asked them, Do I have a nose? they said yes, So, you are not dealing with Leonardo Dicaprio here I will be alright let have the mirror please. What will be a hero without a scar in the face? 6 months later all scars disappeared, I was disappointed because in the ER I had made up my mind to accept the scar for the rest of my life before seeing it, all fair to me. Who lead me to believe I had an encounter with a vampire at some point in my life and that is why my skin healed like that. Like I said life should be joy and a joke too. I am not a genius or with testicles made of granite. I am neither blessed. I am just lucky. Damn lucky because I remember a lot. And when my luck ran out. I will accept it with a smile.

Probably all of my near death experiences.

My parents were more upset than I was about me dying.
I would say that people who have come close to death have a much greater appreciation for life than those who have not.

Not that I'm encouraging this type of thing. I've just been enjoying life so much that death is merely an occupational hazard

My first trip to another country. I spent an entire 12 months as an exchange student to Germany. It was life-changing, including opening my sheltered, small-town, Pentacostal eyes to reality of a broader world and many shades of gray.