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While teaching, I managed to get a special needs student who could only read at a first grade level to read a graphic novel adaptation of 3 musketeers. The student was able to sound out D'Artagnon's name and everything. Felt really good when his mom came and personally thanked me for his newfound interest in reading and his ability. I sent her home with multiple digital copies of classics adapted into comic book form to keep him going: Moby Dick, Man in the Iron Mask, Treasure Island, etc.

Later, while with the company I'm working for now, I was doing work for the National Guard. One soldier came in and I asked her if she was from Brasil, as I recognized the accent because I used to have two Brasilian roommates. She said it made her day, because nobody ever got it right.

So certainly the first one had the most impact. But both made me feel like I made a difference in someone's life.

I also feel really good about myself when I see people I care about succeed at things.

"When the homies shine, I shine." ~ Boondocks

A couple years back I rescued two kittens from my yard. Now that's not something to feel good about, kittens are hilarious and it was its own reward. The problem was I already owned a cat, and my house is tiny. I had to find a home for at least one.
They were different ages. I raised one of them from bottle to solids, which was the moment I realised I couldn't let her go.
They stayed with us for three months while I looked for a suitable home, and they had their shots.

Eventually one of my friends took the older kitten, and I felt like gak. She cried all the way there in the car, and I shed a few on the way home, feeling a sort of weird grief and guilt.
This year I stayed over there, and that scraggly little nuisance kitten is now a happy, loving member of their house, and brings happiness to everyone there.
So I did the right thing, and I'm extremely happy now. It just took a long time to feel good.

I'm just happy that I'm referenced in an opening post of a thread and it isn't filled with rage about something I said!

 d-usa wrote:
I'm just happy that I'm referenced in an opening post of a thread and it isn't filled with rage about something I said!

Oh, that whacky multiverse!

My family once took care of a stray cat. When we found it it was malnourished, hungry and sick. We took care of him for half a year. I saw him grow from a scared kitten to a full grown healthy cat. A shame he got hit by a car :(

Three years or so back, I lived an unhealthy life with bad food and no exercise. Eventually I realised this wouldn't work in the long run, so I began to train a lovely martial art called Bujinkan, I started to bike to school and back every day (almost 40km per day!) and while I am still quite heavy (80 kg or 176 lbs, heavy even for my height of 5'10"ish) a lot of that is now muscle.

I look at myself in the mirror and I now see a ninja, not a hamplanet, and that is something that makes me feel good.

When kids fall off their bikes and I'm like "I could have done a frontroll out of that!"....I feel good.

Relapse wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
I'm just happy that I'm referenced in an opening post of a thread and it isn't filled with rage about something I said!

Oh, that whacky multiverse!

I remember that DP thread... and I'd like to think that D, and others, gave me that push to be against the DP now.

When all else fails...

Well for me the greatest moment was having someone say that their life was better off from meeting me.

 whembly wrote:

Relapse wrote:

 d-usa wrote:
I'm just happy that I'm referenced in an opening post of a thread and it isn't filled with rage about something I said!

Oh, that whacky multiverse!

I remember that DP thread... and I'd like to think that D, and others, gave me that push to be against the DP now.

Can you remember which thread this was?

That had to have been quite a few years back now I think.

I think this thread is a very nice idea, and the kind of thing that would be great to discuss in-person... but unfortunately, as evidenced by some of the above posts, it's the kind of thing that's difficult to discuss online without attracting a lot of joke-type posts.

Cheers for all who posted sincerely in this thread, regardless!