Mister Calleja! Tell me about a big turning point in your life.
Huh.
Well, there are a few.. mostly to do with my decisions at schooling and whatnot... but I guess the biggest one was my Carpe Diem turning point.
Before 12th grade I was your stereotypical nerdy geek, who was shy around girls, didn't have a lot of friends and would pine over the girl I had a crush on from a safe distance and what not. Unhappy.
Every time I tell this story I wish there was a clearer more defined catalyst, but I think it was more of a string of unrelated events that made me wake up one day and say... what the crap are you doing, you moron? You spend your life hoping it'll be better in the future... when you MAY NOT EVEN GET A FUTURE. I realized that the most precious commodity we get in this life is time.
I made "Carpe Diem" my personal philosophy. Which I know is trite and probably even cliche'd... but it was still better than the runner up: Hakuna Matata. tee hee.
Since then I made it a point to stop worrying about looking bad, or being rejected... I stopped caring what people thought about me and just did what I felt the most happy or comfortable doing. Living each day as if I may get hit by a bus the next. What I most feared... rejection, embarrassment, all those things... turned out to be way, way, way better than the FEAR of them. I spent WEEKS torturing myself about having a crush on a girl I couldn't even talk to... while the alternative, walking up to her and being rejected, stung for a few hours, maybe in extreme cases a few days. And that's it. I stopped being afraid when I realized the fear was much worse than reality.
Pretty soon after this, other unexpected side effects started to pop up... girls started paying attention to me, my confidence stopped being at sea slug levels and got to "I can talk to girls while LOOKING AT THEM!" levels. I started to make more friends, my social life exploded... little by little the shy, apprehensive and, yes, cowardly persona started to recede into...well, what you know now. Happy.
So I guess that sort of counts as a turning point, no? Heh.