The Smug Booth

[Lady B]

Last time, I posted a thread about aspects of your life that you find embarrassing or otherwise hard to share.

This time, I'm making a thread about all those things that make you feel proud of yourself. The thing that make you put a smug smile on yourself and say "Yeah, I'm awesome, what about it?"

So post some things you've done that make you feel proud of yourself! Could be small things, such as making a stranger smile, to big, daring escapades, such as saving the economy of China.

One thing that I'm very proud of is baking the wedding cake for my uncle's wedding. They couldn't afford to buy a cake from a professional cake shop, so he and his fiancé asked me if I could make it. I made a seven tiered genoise cake, filled with various mouses and creams, covered with champagne coloured royal icing and decorated with edible flowers. I won't ever forget the tears of joy in his eyes when he saw it.

Another thing I'm immensely proud of is getting high enough grades in high school to get accepted into my university. The hard work in all those classes that I hated really paid off, and now I'm able to study (mostly) solely the things I find interesting on a daily basis.

 

[The Taleweaver]

...This thread is going to be awful for me.

I spent nearly ten months homeless, and during that time I managed to be mostly self-sufficient, and walked/hitch-hiked from Iowa to Florida and back.

After that, I attended a vocational training facility where I became the president of a non-profit executive board, managing funds and organizing events and fundraisers. I also served as the "tour guide" whenever we had people visit the facility, such as the US Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, as well as congressmen and senators.

After completing my program there, I was selected by the Department of Labor to serve as one of four ambassadors/representatives of the United States to an educational conference in Beijing, China (it was called APEC, the Asia Pacific Educational Coop). That was a blast, and I enjoyed meeting so many people from so many different countries while I was there.

Upon returning to the States, I attended an advanced training program in North Grafton, Massachusetts (while on the coast, I was lucky enough to spend my summer break in Bangor, where I had a chance to meet one of my favorite authors). I completed the program and was almost immediately hired on as staff at the very facility where I'd originally started my training a couple of years before.

So I'm now working full-time, paid very well, with amazing insurance... and I spend my days helping young men and women become more employable, complete their training programs, or deal with the usual angst and drama of ages 16-24.

 

[Diana]

I am a BOSS at budgeting our finances. That is why we have some nice ass shit in this house and get to enjoy fun things, even though we don't make a lot of money. 8D

 

[Rainjay]

I wish I could bake cakes as insanely cool as that D:


Well, for my birthday once I made a cake with a friend and we were pretty damn proud with how it came out even though it was a pretty shit cake. Think Hagrids cake in Harry Potter with some attempted decoration. But we were proud of it.

I bring some of the most bomb ass cupcakes to parties and school club parties.

I'm also somehow a club officer even though I'm a lazy motherfucker.

I can read 15 books in two weeks, probably more if I tried and didn't have school (yes the 15 books was during school hours).

I also have a habit of getting reportedly awesome birthday presents for my friends. Which makes me really happy. Seeing my friends actually use the gift is even better.


I think that's it?

Too bad none of this is brag-sheet-college-essay worthy.

 

[Snowday]

*clapping for Diana and Tale and Rain*

Sick as frick, yo.

I haven't got anything that impressive, but a couple nights ago I reached the halfway mark in writing what I'm hoping is going to be my book. *happy dance*

 

[Halo]

I have very few achievements outside of academic ones. I'm proud of managing to get into my uni, Imperial College London. It was rated the second best in the world this year, and yeah, fuck it, I'm proud of the fact I was smart enough to get in.

I'm also proud of my accomplishments in debating. Last year my team placed second in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and I was selected as the second best individual debater in the same region. Unfortunately we just missed out on going to the UK finals.

Other than that... well, I don't have many quantifiable achievements. Mostly, I'm proud that I'm the one all my friends come to for advice, support, and comfort. I'm proud that I'm known as "that guy" who always knows what to say to help someone. Even my high school friends still often contact me when they're really down in the dumps and don't know what to do. It's a lot of pressure and I get it wrong sometimes, but I've been through a lot to get to the point where I understand people enough to be "that guy". And I'm proud of my ability to help my friends, as well as taking a lot of personal satisfaction from it. I've helped people get through and recover from everything from self-harm and eating disorders to miscarriage, bereavement, and divorce. And more than any academic achievement, which are primarily about me and the benefit they bring me, I'm proud of how much I've been able to help other people.

..../smugness

 

[Minibit]

I make. The best Cappuccinos

I also am a sales/service QUEEN. Open up your brain tank for me and I'll teach you to sell ice to Eskimos at a 80% markup

 

[nyther]

I meowed at my cat once and he meowed back. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.

 

[LeVen]

For a year I was the best flute player in my sole band (even though I was only second chair because I was younger)

 

[GhostJoker]

Oh man...Speedrunners.

*Smug Laughs*

@Muna @Seiji @Blox

 

[Windsong]

I'm good at cunnilingus.

And managing our finances.

And taking leadership roles when the real leaders are dumbfounded or overwhelmed.

Also make a really delicious margarita.

 

[Peter Feels]

I can punch really hard.

 

[Kooriryu]

Someone remembered my ass during a meeting 10+ years outta middle school, thanking me for shit I don't even remember doing.

Longest, most physically uncomfortable hug 'cuz she was tall as shit and her shoulder was neatly jabbed directly into my throat. My salty-mouthed, brazen fuckin' blunt hot mess self made that much of a difference in that person's life.


Y'all can kiss both labias about it.

 

[WarriorHeart]

I can build/fix anything from houses to cars, computers to guns.
I have supreme powers of observation.
I also read people very well.

Most importantly:
I have a super hot wife who is brilliant and a mega-handsome lil' boy who can make anyone smile.

 

[Freamon]

I'm the only male in my immediate family without a criminal record. That's, um, traditional progress, haha.

 

[Brovo]

Most of my family is either dangerously insane or dead (seriously I can count my family members still living/not insane on one hand), I came from poverty, and it was generally not expected for me to survive past twenty.

I'm twenty two, living on my own, just above the poverty line, free from the nightmarish stupidity that was the first fifteen years of my life. I could have easily grown up bitter about the world, and instead chose to say "fuck that nonsense" to become as kind and tolerant a person as I could personally achieve. I've guided people away from suicide and helped cheer up those who felt alone through personal experiences. Atop all of that, I've managed to keep a role play that I've loved going for almost six years now.

I hit rock bottom, contemplated suicide, have had people attempt to take my life, and yet and bounced back to my feet. More than once.

All the while, I manage to wake up with a smile on my face, make myself some breakfast, knowing that each day I live is a spit in the face to those who thought I should be dead by now.

So yeah. There you go. That's what I'm smug about: I'm not impoverished, I'm not dead, and in a family where both sides suffer disorders I've managed to not only stay sane, but strive to kindness and tolerance. I also KICK ASS AT WRITING... AND VIDEO GAMES! So yeah. Myeh. Still alive. That's what I'm smug about. It may not be much in the grand scheme but I don't give a fuck, means a lot to me.

 

[Peter Feels]

Since mine seems to be taken as a joke, and in a way it was, I'll expand on it so it's a legitimate post.

I've always been the rough and tumble sort growing up. When I was six I was made to participate in Tae Kwon Do. At the age of ten I started punching a tree in our backyard as a way to toughen myself up. As I grew up, the materials I punched varied, but they were always usually something more sturdy and more dense than what I was punching before. I never stopped completely, I sometimes slowed or toned it down, but I've always kept on punching things as a way to make my hands tougher. I eventually up'd it to palm and finger strikes.

Today, at 30, I can punch things casually that would bruise other people's knuckles. I can punch hard enough to strike other people's closed fist and hurt them. My palms are tough enough that I've slapped people nearly unconscious. And my can get smashed pretty hard without effect, and I have a pretty monstrous grip to boot.

All that on top of studying martial arts of one kind or another for a majority of my life makes for a pretty neat combination.

I have other skills and whatnot, but I dislike bragging in this way, as hard as it might be for some to believe.

 

[Jorick]

The biggest thing is similar to Brovo's main thing. I can't really say I'm smug about it (because connotation), but I am proud of it. I grew up in poverty, but recently I finally clawed my way out of it in a stable fashion. My family (including aunts and uncles and cousins and shit, not so much the immediate bunch) is rife with substance abuse and addiction problems, but the worst I've got is probably caffeine addiction. My family is also rife with mental health problems, but I've been fortunate enough to have nothing major crop up in that area. My family also has a whole bunch of people with pretty severe criminal records, but I don't have a criminal record at all. Basically, I'm proud that I've avoided or surpassed the major shitty things I was born into. As fucked up as it is, it's kind of nice to be able to look at my family and say "yeah, I'm doing better than most of you, suck it." Okay, maybe there is some smugness in there, haha.

Other than that, I have to admit that I'm rather smug about my writing. I've gotten all sorts of praise for my writing over the years, both for creative writing (including roleplaying) and more formal writing. Judging by my college experience it seems my lazy rushed last minute quality writing is worth 100% of what it expected at peak performance of the average person. It's a good thing that I'm able to contain my smugness, else I'd probably be an unbearable shit whenever writing is involved.

 

[K3l]

Over five consecutive months helping a little girl get through her illness. Playing with her, singing to her, reading her bedtime stories, gave her my copies of Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire even. Don't care anymore if family tries to put me down claiming I won't be anything or telling me that I'm shit. As long as this little girl gets better and I'm with her every step of the way then that's enough for me to know that I'm not shit. So, pretty smug 'bout that.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I make a cheesecake so good I've had my entire family bribing me for the recipe for years.

My kids admitted to me that they like my ribs better than my husband's, but don't want to tell him because they're afraid of hurting his feelings.

I made my husband switch from loving brunettes to being hooked on redheads after one date, and that was because I made him wait over a month to do anything more than kiss. Longest month of my life, but he later told me if I had been as easy as some of the other girls he knew, he wouldn't have stayed with me.

I am the second person in my family to have their first marriage last past ten years, and I'm only 6 years behind my aunt who managed to stay with her first and only husband for 23 years before she learned he was cheating on her. I am also the only person besides my other aunt whose children all have the same father.

I have read over 1000 books in my lifetime, and the majority of them were as a teenager.

I finished my Bachelor's program with a 3.67 GPA, which I consider a miracle since I was going to school while taking care of four kids. The only class that I did not do well in was statistics, and that was because I did not understand a damn thing about it. I still managed to BS my way to a C.

I have had the same best friend since I was 9 years old. We're not quite a close as we used to be because of the distance and the fact that we both have families, but 26 years of being friends is still pretty impressive.

Despite the fact that majority of my family is racist, sexist, and pretty much homophobic, I managed to grow up with a relatively open mind, and my kids are the same way.