What's something you're proud of doing?

Remember Valentine's day 2004, when San Francisco county started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples?

Thousands of couples showed up. Some from the other side of the planet, some from the other side of town. The County Clerk was overwhelmed and there weren't nearly enough wedding officiants to keep up. So they put out a call for volunteers to be deputized by the Clerk as county marriage commissioners. I volunteered and officiated at dozens of ceremonies at city hall.

Still have my official commission hanging on my wall.

Okay, that is awesome.
I let a homeless guy know he dropped a nickel.

That’s awesome - well done! Reminded me of something else, story below.
For anyone that watched MythBusters, you’re probably aware the two main hosts, Adam and Jaimie, didn’t like each other because they were two different clashing personalities and tough to work with. There was a pirate myths episode, and Adam went all out dressing as a pirate and using a very heavy faux-pirate accent. Jaimie was laughing so hard during that scene that his whole head was red! One of the most endearing moments of the show, and something I treasure because this show was so influential for me growing up.
Props to anyone like @Vanth@reddthat.com that makes the normally serious person laugh!
Come on, you can't tell us that and not share the joke!
I think doing this is a life achievement. I used to work at a grocery store and was being trained by an ex military woman who was hard as nails and really no nonsense. At one point she was explaining to me the concept of First in First Out (FIFO stocking of product, meaning the oldest product stays at the front of the shelf to be purchased first).
When she asked me "have you heard of FIFO?" I replied "Yeah, first in, last out.... Oh, wait, that's the Marine Corps". Got an actual laugh out of her. I'll never forget it.

They made a rule against using bird houses in a demolition contest because of me. It’s not my fault they asked for the most effective way of getting through a steel plate instead of the most precise.

I would love more details.
- So there I was with something of an informal competition in front of me to make the “best” shaped charge to blow throw about a two inch steel plate. It was really just something like practicing skills and maybe showing off creativity.
  Most people took “best” to mean most efficient, precise, or cleanly shaped hole in the metal. I took a different meaning. A Mongo minded meaning.
  People showed up with their creations and proceeded to pack them with explosives. Most were C4 filled and under half a pound, many of them much less. Shaped charges made of coins, wine bottles, whatever else.
  I brought a bird house similar to:
  Removed the copper roof, put it in a 5 gallon bucket and proceeded to fill the bucket with as much C4 as it could hold. I don’t know how much. It was a lot. More explode means more good.
  My charge had to go last for fear of disrupting everything else. I put a dachshund sized hole in the steel plate along with a massive crack. Penetrated the dirt a few feet down. Somebody even recovered the copper penetrator and turned it into a keychain.
  After that they put a size limit on how much explosives you could use. Really not my fault there wasn’t a limit in the first place.
Please tell us more...

Going to talk therapy. Getting married and having kids really pushed me and helps me keep going on the hardest days. I cannot have mental illness affect their lives like it did mine growing up.

I have three kids. I was present for the birth of the youngest two. But I adopted my oldest. She was 12 so she had to tell the judge she was OK with it. I told her it came with two conditions: Nothing between us needed to change and she didn't have to call me "Dad". She calls me by first name to my face but she calls me "dad" behind my back. I'll take it.

It just so happens I'm proud of something I did two hours ago as I write this sentence. A friend of mine said they needed a constant companion for the time being, and another friend said they needed a certain demographic to be friends with, and after realizing the first friend fell under that demographic, I thought "wait, do these two people know each other". Three hours ago as I write this sentence, I introduced them, and they really hit it off. I just made three people very happy.

In 2007, I, a non-white non-Korean, took a job in South Korea. Then, I took another. Then, at the third job, I was hired, but the owner's brother was amenable to some of the more racist thoughts that guided the approach to business in SK. He thought I would hurt the business. He resisted hiring another non-white, non-Korean.

The owner asked me to write a letter. Instead of saying, "that's not my job", I wrote the letter. I made the case. They hired another non-white, non-Korean after me.

I'm still pretty proud of that letter.

When I was still in a band we played the same venue that I saw one of my favorite bands play at once. That was really cool, even though it was on a Monday and we just played to other bands.

The indomitability of the human spirit. Good for you!

Being pleasant and helpful to customers at work. What I do is by no means important, but I take pride in doing it well (or at least trying to). Too many people in customer service are bored, apathetic, or act like you’re bothering them by asking them to do their jobs. I like to make people smile.

As someone who has worked in the customer service industry... I will not allow you to belittle yourself.
What I do by no means [is] important,
If I were standing next to you right now, I would playfully but with meaning, open up your cranium, lean down, sternly point, and talk to your brain with the following. "You stop being mean to @magnetosphere@kbin.social or you're going to have to deal with me."
I 1000% disagree with the selected statement above. You and your work are very important to the people that come in. If it weren't for the work that you do, I can guarantee you that there would be more people feeling lonely, discontent, or frustration. Being pleasant is a sought after characteristic, I would argue in all work industries. (Think about it. How well would a company perform or last, if it wasn't for those who work there, being pleasant to be around?) Being helpful: I'm goodness. People LOVE to be out shopping and find an employee that actually wants to help you out. It's a high ranking frustration for customers in any industry. Nobody (in my experience,) wants to always have to find things or do things for themselves at a business. So if you genuinely like making people smile or providing a good shopping experience, you're a badass in my book.
- Wow. Thank you.
As someone else who works in customer service, thank you! I take pride in trying to make sure the customer is always properly helped, and done so in a kind and just manner.
I get that some people are jaded because of past experiences (and I really am not trying to understate that here), but treating the customer like shit because of it only perpetuates the cycle. The customer treats the support person badly, which causes said rep to treat more customers badly, etc. If no one takes charge to stop it, then the customer service industry will always be doomed to suffer - on both sides.
I'm just glad that my current job does let me actually help our customers workout having to worry about KPIs and other metrics (we have one metric, which is to reach 0.5% of something on all of our tickets - it's pretty forgiving). I left my last place because it was always about the numbers, and had no human element accounted for your performance.

I quit smoking. Had too many downsides to be justifiable.

Hell yeah! Proud of you, internet stranger. Quitting, I hear, is one of the most difficult things.

I took up an instrument for the first time in my late 30s and have gotten okay at it. If I was 8 years old people would nod politely to my parents after my recital.

what instrument? what songs are you playing, or are you originating music??
- Mandolin. Playing Bach, American folk standards and children's songs. Started la vie en rose tonight. No original material but it's been fun to do something I, for a reason I no longer remember, thought was beyond me. My wife loves it. My kids are annoyed that I follow them around like a restaurant mariachi playing the same songs over and over lol.

Being part of a team that helped a child learn to communicate in their own way. They went from dangerous head banging behaviors, having to work in a padded room to sitting at a desk with nearly no SIB. Not all wine and roses but damn it’s night and day over the last 2 years.

I made some mods for a few games. People still use 'em.

That’s really neat. Which games/mods?
- Mostly Deus Ex and the Bethesda Fallout titles. (3, New Vegas, and 4)

I'm 20. I haven't made it big but I've moved into a place with my best friend, have paid off my car without help from my dad, have a steady job making good money, can work on my own car, and have friends that make good company. I'd say I'm proud from getting all of this in the 2 years since high school

I'm 20 and I did none of those. I'm a loser. I'm dropping out of college most probably
- From one dropout to another, good luck. Things worked out okay for me. May e they will for you too.

Over the past year my AVG daily step count is over 15k.

Brushing my teeth. I've been through progressive hard depression from an early age. Yeah. It's not much

Small improvements are still improvements, my friend - good on ya!
I'm trying to build a flossing habit, myself
You're wrong friend.
Even for people that are not depressed, brushing their teeth is almost a chore.
You brushing your teeth, not only shows great resilience, but also improvement

Sometimes I proud of myself of just solving problems that haven't settled in days, which makes me a bit of achievement.

Something I wrote has been read on every continent.

That's wonderful! What did you write about? Link? =)
- I can't link without doxing myself, but it was a civil rights political essay at a time when I was far more involved in activism than I am now.
- Erotic muppet fan fiction.
  The link would get me banned from Lemmy.

When helping someone knowing very well that I won't get anything from them in return.

Getting involved in local street design projects, and making a literally concrete difference.

Raising two kids with my wife and being a very supportive friend to someone who is raising their first child on their own.

Small thing, but I pride myself on it.

Stuff keeps breaking in my house. I hate fixing the stuff, but I always feel super proud when it's done.

In the last month I replaced an electrical outlet that released its magic smoke when the electric griddle cord short circuited. I replaced the igniter in our gas oven. And just today I replaced the insinkerator garbage disposal that started leaking water under the sink.

my mom started teaching deaf kids at a school in my hometown. this school is mostly attended by kids from poor families and some from nearby villages. the funding of this school is very small, and not much is provided to help prepare classes. note that my mom never knew how to speak sign language but she was very determined to learn to to.

my mom also wasn’t pc-literate and was previously not keen on learning to use it but in order to excel (pun not intended) at her position she was required to learn to use word and other teaching tools on the computer.

so i helped her get started and showed her how to prepare her classes using images and she was quite a fast learner and resources online to learn sign language, but i was especially happy to find some amazing tools that had kid friendly animations which helped her teach them to write and speak sign language

something that really touched me is that one day, her work computer was malfunctioning so i had to visit her and fix it for her. when i walked in, her students didn’t recognize me so they asked her who i was, and when she told them i was her son who got her those learning tools they became ecstatic and signed how grateful they were to be able to meet me in real life

they’re mostly 8-14yo and were marginalized especially since the class they attended was previously discontinued and they had no other way to become literate and integrate a bit more into society. ive sat through some of her sessions and ill never forget the look in their eyes and how happy and excited to learn they all were

they went on to get their 6th grade diploma and some of them even continued their studies beyond that, im also proud of my mom who helped save them and at least be more literate, even though its not much to a full education but its about as good as it gets given the circumstances

An unhoused woman recently asked me if I'd buy her some food at a fast food joint. I said ok because I think I have a moral obligation to help anyone who asks for food if I can afford to. She ordered the largest multi-item meal they offered (think bucket of chicken). The person ringing it up offered to do a smaller combo, but I said fuck it and let her get the largest. I figured she might have people to feed other than herself and it's not like I couldn't afford to let her indulge.

The reason I'm proud on this is because I changed myself into this compassionate person where once there was an angry person filled with hate. This is the product of years of therapy and deliberate self-work. I'm also proud of finally being able to love myself. That happened in 2019-2020.

Damn! Keep you the great work. <3
- Thank you.

Your mom.

Boom... totally roasted.

Necrophilia ain't not joke.
- It's cold and calculated