One of my most profound personal development periods came when I was nineteen. I was taking college course's through a federal program for clerical training. One of the courses was interpersonal communications, they used a book called Looking In Looking Out. At the end of the course we had to write a essay on how we thought the course helped us. At the time I had spent three years in a relationship that I had become dissatisfied with over time, that book gave me the courage to decide to overcome whatever challenges came my way to go it on my own. A couple days before I moved out I made a list of the things I wanted to accomplish in my life, which was way more then he ever wanted to do. I mean during that relationship there probably was a time I would have married him but he didn't see any need to get married, he didn't see any need to buy a home someday, his family had all been renters, it was good enough for them it was good enough for him. One day he came home from work and I was moving out, then he wanted to get married...lol. I told him it was to late, I made my list of things I wanted to do in my life and marrying him wasn't one of them. He told me I'd never amount to nothing being a woman. Well I did everything but one thing on that list and that was to have a really nice dinette set for my dining room in the house that I would own one day. (I know that's sort of a silly thing to have on a list, the only thing I can think that compelled me to write it down was my fascination growing up with antique dining room sets)...and the main reason I don't have one is because my dining room was the kids play room and now the grand kids play area. I got a triple A plus on that report, the teacher told me she had no idea how strongly her class had motivated me.