1.4 What's It All About? (I Did That?)

If you completed the first exercises, you’ve stirred memories of the events that shaped you.

Here’s what you accomplished.

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• Collected physical objects to spark memories of your past – photos, letters,

journals, mementos, symbols.

• Created a timeline of your life & summed up the times of your life

• Listed and explained the parts you’ve played

 

Take a moment now to process all this information.

Have you noticed similar ideas or themes popping up at different moments of your life?

Have you noticed connections between childhood events and adult behaviors?

Have you noticed how you dealt with obstacles that got in your way of accomplishing something?

If you have noticed any or all of these, you are beginning to get to the point of your memoir.

You have gone through a trial, or two, three, maybe more, to achieve something.

The stories of these trials and their outcome are the essence, the meat, of your memoir.

So, take a moment now to think about what’s on your memoir menu.

At different times in your life, you did something to achieve something.

What you did may have been difficult or out-of-character for you.

The reward, though, made it worth stepping outside your comfort zone.

Recall as many of these times as you can and

write a sentence summarizing what you did and what you wanted.

 

NOTE: You may create more than one statement. That’s okay. Eventually, you will probably focus on one. Having a few to start, but no more than five, gives you that many ideas to choose from.

   

Examples

• I worked at three jobs so that I could become financially independent.

• I sacrificed a college education so that I could become a professional athlete.

• I gave up a military career so that I could marry and have a family.

• I gave up a career in the world of finance so that I could care for my disabled daughter.

• I took a job with an airline so that I could travel around the world.

• I returned to college to get a degree so that I could survive after my divorce.

• I learned how to forgive so that I could reunite with my mother who had abandoned me as a child.