I don't have one single greatest achievement, but I do have greatest achievements in different disciplines that don't really overlap.
Greatest physical achievement - This one's clear. Hiking to Everest Basecamp over 14 days was most definitely the most intense and challenging physical thing I have ever done. Only the first day was anything other than a challenge. It took a lot of mental discipline and concentration to stick to the task and accomplish the milestones of each day without compromising any part of the expedition. I am very proud of what I accomplished, which included 3 ascents of mountains over 5,000m (16,400 feet) in height, the longest hike I've ever done, the highest hike I've ever done, a 5,650m high alpine crossing requiring crampons and walking on a glacier, the crossing of the longest glacier in Nepal on foot, and a flight in and out of the most dangerous airport in the world. It would have never been possible without our guide, who lead us at the proper pace required at those altitudes every single day. I learned a ton not only about my own body, but also about my own personality, about the 2 friends who were there with me, about high altitude hiking and hiking in general, learned a lot about clothing, fabrics, gear considerations, a lot of interesting things about Nepali culture, about geology, flora, fauna, history, philosophy, religion.. A achievement wrapped in so many different layers
Greatest intellectual achievement - One evening I took some intoxicants and at 9pm or so got annoyed at a process at work. It was a system I had to maintain as part of my job. Three times a year I had to copy all the database tables over, copy all the code over, make it work for the new term, make new links to the new interface, basically build a new system from an older system, implementing changes to the process as I go along.. It was a system that was initially built by this guy who ended up going a bit crazy. Very bad code, not commented either, and a data structure that did not make much sense. This always took a couple days, involved meetings with stakeholders, files being exchanged, and all sorts of other annoying stuff that I always hated doing those 3 times a year. This all happened during a time when all sorts of other stuff also had to get done in preparation for the new term, so it was just all so super annoying overall. So I'm sitting there intoxicated, and I'm just mad. I say "F this", I remote in to my work machine, and I start building a new system from scratch. All the modifications I've been doing to this series of systems, a new system every 4 months, the table structure got burned in my mind. I did not have to stop to plan, I just sat there and pumped out a 100% brand new spanking system with a new database backend and user interface. Everything was new.. and the best part? A button that allows you to roll over the whole system to a new term. You click it and make changes on a form and boom that's it, no need to do anything else, no need to even talk to me. At 7:30am I was finished with the last bits of testing and I was ready to copy over all the data from all the other (15+) systems into the new system. Wrote a script to copy all the data into the new system, ran it, did some more testing, edited all the links to the old systems, replaced them all with my new system, and at 8:55am I was ready to email my boss. I emailed my boss, told him what I did, then sent another email to all the major stakeholders and users who used the old systems. I told them that the old system was gone and that there is a new system, but that the transition to the new system is going to be seamless even though it looks different. At 9am the office opened and the financial aid officers started logging into the intranet and launching the new system. But at that point I was already sleeping. I woke up at 4pm and checked my email and everything was all good. Praise all around and my boss telling me to get some rest. I can't remember if I went back to sleep, but it felt sooooo good to get rid of that stupid !@!# old way of doing things and just busting out that new solution without taking a break. It's like the solution was in my head, all the algorithms I would need, the database design, data structures, UI elements, I felt like a zen master who sees everything clearly and is just able to sit there for almost 12 hours and produce something I am still so incredibly proud of. It is still in use by the way! I haven't seen it in years, but it's around.
Greatest psychological achievement - Facing my fear of heights and jumping off the world's highest cliff jump in New Zealand took an incredible amount of effort. By the time I was up on that platform, that was already hours and hours of fear building up inside of me. I had to mentally calm myself down throughout this whole process and convince myself that I am going to jump. I had no idea how to do it and I was so damn scared, probably have not felt that scared before in my life. It was not just a mental fear, it was also definitely physical in nature - I could feel it in my body, in my stomach, in my throat.. I was even reciting the Litany against fear at one point on the bus that was taking us up to the platform - all while TVs throughout the bus were showing us videos of people screaming and crying and standing on that platform and being too afraid to jump. Somehow reciting the litany actually helped put me in a more composed mental state, maybe it was just concentrating on the words instead of the jump, I don't know, but it seemed to help so I kept doing it. Then when we got to the top I told them I was afraid of heights, half-hoping it would mean that I go first. So they grabbed my hand and strapped me in. I "jumped" backwards sitting in a chair, because I could not conceive my brain allowing me to jump off that platform in any other position. I had to be facing away from the platform, because if I saw how high up we were (110m) I just wouldn't jump. 100%. But standing and jumping off a platform backwards seems insane. 100% wouldn't do that either. So then I saw the option of the chair.. and.. yeah okay. I'll just sit in the chair and lean back and sort of fall over backwards! Brilliant! . .. Yeah it was scary AF but it was incredible to me how super fast I went from feeling the most afraid I think I've ever felt.. that moment right before I started falling.. and not even a full second later I don't think suddenly I am feeling the most amazing feeling. One of the most amazing things I have ever felt. It was so crazy for that sudden change from super bad to super awesome. It felt like such an amazing vindication of making the decision to face that fear in that way. I was smiling for like a week after that, and even signed up for skydiving later on in my trip. It didn't happen due to bad weather, but I'm def skydiving at some point. I might crap my pants along the way, but it's happening
Greatest video game achievement - First time docking in Kerbal Space Program
