Have your children or grandchildren been begging you to record your fascinating experiences? Have you considered sharing your life story? Think about doing it now, even if you’ve never considered yourself a writer.

Have you faced and overcome hardships and serious obstacles to your health, happiness, or success? Have you survived a catastrophic event or a tragedy? Have you served in the military? Have you traveled to interesting places? Do you have hobbies that others may want to learn about? Have you raised a family? Have you retired from a great (or not so great) career? Have you retired to begin another career? Have you discovered interesting and useful volunteer activities? Have you learned valuable lessons that you need to share?

Do you have memories and stories about your ancestors that you want to pass along to the next generation? Are you an “unsung hero” ready to let your achievements be recognized?

Whatever your life story (and you certainly do have one), you need to record it. Here is an example: My mother’s recent death brought my family together, and my brother and I shared old family memories of both our father and our mother. According to my brother, our father told him an interesting story about a three-day trip from his–and our–home town, Whitewater, Wisconsin, to Northfield, Minnesota, sometime during his college years (1926-29), in a Model-T Ford. It was a difficult trip on unimproved roads, nothing like the expressway trips we take today in our modern cars. I had not even heard the story, and my brother could no longer remember the details (our father died in 1974). How we wish he had written down that story, and many others! How thankful we are that our mother did write her story at age 86!

Here is an excerpt from the final chapter of my own memoir: “Writing is a wonderful way to bring what you see and do into sharper focus. When you write about ordinary experiences as simple as taking a walk or eating at a favorite restaurant, you expand the experience by giving it texture and depth that it wouldn’t otherwise have. Writing forces us to look attentively at what we see and to interpret, as well as to remember it.”

How to begin? That’s up to you. The suggestions above provide a variety of starting places. Just begin writing, even a few minutes a day. Begin a journal. An inexpensive notebook and a pen are the only tools you really need, but use your computer if you prefer. Some people begin with their earliest memories and proceed in chronological order, but there’s no need to limit yourself. If you’re not accustomed to writing regularly, feel free to start with a few sentences about yesterday’s activities, today’s plans, things you’ve seen or heard or read, how you feel. Anything goes in a private journal. I’ll write more about both private and shared journals later.

We invite you to share your stories and your experiences here on eGenerations, where you’ll find a friendly audience. We hope you will read what others write and offer constructive, encouraging comments. Any story can eventually become the nucleus for your memoirs. Writing your life story is a wonderful way to discover, to heal, and to share.

I will be here to help you.