I am developing a vain streak. This is based on some progress I am making through exercise viz. I am developing some form and muscle. I never thought it possible to metamorphosis into a mesomorph. So my modest muscular achievement is going to my head. For the first time – ever – I walk into the gym among the ‘big boys’ and not feel I am trespassing.
It is a nice thought, for I am accomplishing something I never thought possible.
Spo-fans must keep in mind I have always been a skinny wimp, the low main in the gym hierarchy. If I were to go to a beach I would be the one onto whom others kick sand.
I also have some mild revenge smugness, knowing most of the bullies and in-shape jocks from my youth have nowadays gone to pot.
My Midwest upbringing says I shouldn’t boast, but this is not so much about how I good I look but what I have achieved.
I may not be able to make a race horse out of a pig, but I am a now very fast pig.
It is nice to know with  insight, courage, and a bit of self-restraint we can do almost anything.
Question to Spo-fans: tell me something you have achieved which you never believed possible.
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January 24, 2012 at 11:53 PM
Raybeard
Oh, Dr Spo! I shudder at the thought of YOU turning into a Muscle Mary! But as long as you are happy, then I am too.
What a nostalgic thought you put in mind – those old Charles Atlas adverts! Great stuff. Do you have a home ‘bullworker’? – other than ‘Someone’, I mean!
Answer to your question. – At school I was hopeless at languages. Failed dismally every test in French and Latin (the only two we were taught).
In the last 15 years I’ve achieved, through our Open University, Diplomas in French, German and Spanish (well, the last is actually 3/4 of a Diploma as I couldn’t afford the final year – but it’ll come.)
Now I’m very keen indeed to see other answers.
January 25, 2012 at 12:49 AM
Tai
Ask me the invert question
January 25, 2012 at 2:12 AM
rg
And yet, Mr. Peacock, I still haven’t received any pics of your progress in my email! I thought we were friends.
January 25, 2012 at 4:05 AM
YvesPaul
I agree. We demand pictures or an xTube video!
January 25, 2012 at 4:02 AM
Will
Wrote the libretto for an opera in collaboration with my husband and saw it premiered starring a Metropolitan Opera soprano with my scenery last May. I’m not sure it was something I was told I could or would never do because I didn’t think anybody even considered I could write such a thing.
January 25, 2012 at 4:58 AM
Blobby
I know your feeling of ‘the big boys’. It took me 18 mos before I felt I deserved to be in the gym and longer in the weight room.
I can’t think of any achievements I have done that I didn’t think I could. I guess, I beat cancer, but that was more my doc’s doing than mine.
January 25, 2012 at 5:25 AM
tigerchanter
My proudest achievement is having dealt with my mother-in-law for almost 22 years now without committing murder!
January 25, 2012 at 6:28 AM
Raybeard
That’s just ace, T.C.! Now don’t spoil your record. We don’t want to see you in prison with, to be more ‘useful’, your teeth knocked out.
January 25, 2012 at 6:35 AM
Shawn
I would like to know more about this fast pig……
January 25, 2012 at 6:43 AM
Urspo
What this means is, from a relative point of view, I have gone from skinny wimp to ‘some meat on my bones’. My ostrich legs are now a bit more shapely. I am still one of the thinner ones when I hit the gym floor. But, going from ‘nothing’ to ‘something’ is quite an acheivement for me. Going from ‘something’ to ‘a lot’ is probably not going to happen, given my genetics. So, no ‘race horse’ for me status; I will be content being a fast pig. At least I can now go out in public in bermudas. Spo-fans are crying for photos; I promise I will put out one. My luck at self-photography is bad – no decent photo so far – the lens cracks on me. I will try to get Someone to take a photo soon……
________________________________
January 25, 2012 at 7:31 AM
Arnie Lewis Tharp
Grrrrrrrr……….
January 25, 2012 at 9:00 AM
Scott
My proudest achievement was returning to college for a second time and receiving my computer science degree AND finding gainful employment in that field for the past 10+ years.
January 25, 2012 at 10:05 AM
Jay
Mu mother’s sister questioned whether or not I would “make it” as a teacher in the Ames Schools..Well I did and after 38 years of teaching (34 in Ames) I retired and was told that I was the most innovative teacher in the schools. Not true but it was nice to hear. I am proud that many of my former students are now my friends after seeing what it meant to have a “tough” teacher who had expectations of them.
January 25, 2012 at 11:55 AM
jamesgfigueiredoJames
“I may not be able to make a race horse out of a pig”.
I’ve never heard it phrased like taht, and I gotta say it got a good laugh outta me (don’t hate me).
And kudos on your progress, doc!
Best,
J.
January 25, 2012 at 1:35 PM
Jon
I’m not the “achiever” type. I don’t set any goals. Never did and never will. As far as competition is concerned, I’m totally stranger to that concept. I just “do stuff”. Period! Not looking to be good or improve and certainly not trying to be better than…
Congrats on you achievement!
Hugs
Jon
January 25, 2012 at 2:02 PM
Sassybear
Living past 40
January 25, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Nik_TheGreek
Congratulations! Where are the before and after pictures?
January 25, 2012 at 2:37 PM
Pink
I climbed to the top of a very tall rock wall – despite being some 40 pounds overweight! I felt stoked and proud of my determination to do it
So, well done, you! Be proud!
xox
Pinks
January 25, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Old Lurker
After years of disastrous shop classes, I never thought I had
mechanical aptitude. But later in life I learned how to fix bicycles.
How butch!
January 25, 2012 at 4:21 PM
james of the woods
do not gild the lily too much lest you become one of those who appear to be “trying too hard”.
my “life in the woods” with cameron and rupert the canadian wonder pussy and my “loopy” neighbors is my very proudest achievement. i wake up each morning feeling like i have won the lottery!
January 25, 2012 at 5:05 PM
Mike in PHX
I was able to quite smoking cigarettes 13 years ago. After smoking nearly 2 packs a day for 20 plus years, and failing at the attempts to quit many times, I enrolled in a “quit smoking” course the hospital was hosting. We spent one day a week for eight weeks talking about our issues and taking lung function tests. The defining moment, at least for me, was when the doctor brought out a piece of actual human lung that had been taken over by cancer. We poked and prodded the specimen which elicited a lot of interesting conversations. The doctor said after 15 years as a non-smoker that our lungs would return to a state as if we had never smoked. I call the good doctor each year on the anniversary of my “graduation” just to check in and remind them that I will be in for my lung function test on my 15 year anniversary.
January 25, 2012 at 5:45 PM
rjjs8878
When I was twenty-seven I was told I had AIDS and had six months to live. I’ll be fifty-five in February.
January 25, 2012 at 6:52 PM
Ron
You have every right to indulge in your achievement. You are a very attractive Spo.
January 25, 2012 at 7:20 PM
Erik Rubright
Congratulations, Spo!
As for your question: I’d have to say my latest career change. Not something I would ever have thought I’d be doing, or expected to have done.
January 25, 2012 at 8:11 PM
Kelly
Making it past 30… then 40… then getting married… come on 50!!!
January 27, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Cubby
Congratz Spo! My achievement was making it back down to college weight (I lost 78 pounds) at my advanced age of 45yo.