BY MINDI SCOTT

I used to watch LOST, and one of the episodes that has really stuck with me over the years is called “Hit List.” In this episode, Charlie makes a list of the “Five Best Moments of [His] Pathetic Excuse for a Life,” and every item he adds triggers a flashback.  (Of course.)

Shortly after it originally aired in 2007, I made up a list of my own. But recently, I was compelled to create a new list. As it turns out, only one of the memories from the original list made the cut.

And here is my new list!

The Five Best Moments of My Life, Revised

(Note:  Some of these have links to the original journal entries that I made right after they happened, including one that has never been public before!)

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5. May 16, 2003: The day Dwayne (my husband) and I went to Discovery Cove in Florida. 

Flashback:  We swam with a dolphin (in a very supervised/photo-op way) and with (non-dangerous) sting rays! Such a relaxing and amazing experience.

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4. October 31, 2008: The night Dwayne and I watched the volcano.

Flashback: Dwayne and I were on Hawaii’s Big Island and took an impromptu trip to see the active volcano spewing lava into the air and the ocean at nighttime. We didn’t have any warm clothes in our rental car at the time, so I bought knee-high socks that said, “Grandma” all over them and wore them with my shorts.

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3. March 17, 2008: The night when Dwayne and I saw Nightmare of You for the first time.

Flashback:  Dwayne and I were obsessed with the band Ash. So obsessed that we flew to New York City for a rare show in the U.S.  to see them! Ash’s performance turned out to be really great. The whole trip was great, actually! But it was the opening band Nightmare of You, who really caught our attention and amazed us.

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2. Early November 2002: The day that I sat on an empty beach in Mexico, reading a book and getting horribly sunburned on my legs.

Flashback: Dwayne and I had been married for a year when we flew to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico for vacation with friends. The three of them went surfing, but I read on the beach all day long. I honestly don’t remember what I was reading. They were mysteries or romance novels that I’d picked up at the resort where we were staying. But for reasons that I still can’t explain, I felt so at peace and happy that day. (Little did I know that my legs would peel for a month after I got home!)

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1. January 6, 2009: The day a literary agent, Jim McCarthy, called me to offer representation.

Flashback: When I started writing, my goal was never to get published. That felt too big and too much out of my control. No, my goal was to get an agent to represent me and, hopefully, one day I’d get published as a result of that. After two manuscripts and well over 100 rejections, I finally got an agent. My first book deal came a few months later. There have been lots of great writing/publishing moments, but I’m honestly not sure that anything will ever top the time that a professional literary agent decided to take a chance on me.

As you can see, my top two moments involve reading and writing. And, as I pointed out to Dwayne, only one of these took place in Washington State, where we live. This must mean something . . .

Now, if this were the olden days of the internet, I might tag people and guilt-trip them into completing this meme. (But probably not.) I’m not going to do that, but I would absolutely love to hear about your Top Five, Top Three, or Top Some Other Number Moments in your life.

And stay tuned later this week for Michelle’s list!