WRITING YOUR HISTORY YOUR WAY

 

I’ve read through several personal histories and all of them have been different; as different as the individuals who lived them. When writing a personal history it becomes your personalized record of you; yourself, your life’s experiences, your feelings, even your innermost thoughts.

 

Everyone’s life should have a record somewhere, no matter what size, shape, or distant memory. Don’t let YOU be forgotten. And don’t let someone else write about your life for you.

The best histories I have read have been personal accounts of random memories. Journal entries are good, but only when they give us visual information of that person (and don’t ramble). Stories, moments, events, specific feelings are much more interesting than ramblings without purpose.

 

Scrapbooks are all the rage and they can be fun to look through, but nothing beats a story; especially a cleverly written one. A nice combination of a story describing a picture, or series of pictures, is great. In fact, I’ve seen a history that has pictures upon pictures, with explanations all over the page, sharing memories, stories, history, and tradition. This took a vast amount of work but will be treasured forever.

 

My least favorite histories are the labored, daily log of everyday life that has no direction other than to document each and every day, month, year of a person’s life. They are more event-based, rather than story-based, and end up being quite boring to read.

 

 

One woman I talked with used to write poetry. She didn’t start until late in life while working the night shift as a nurse. When life became difficult, as it does for all of us, she began a deep concentrated study of the scriptures when the floor was mostly asleep. As other nurses looked over her shoulder, to see what she was doing, they would see the scriptures and immediately look the other way. They were not interested. However, as she pondered the scriptures she was learning about, she felt compelled to write poems about the doctrine she felt so deeply about. As she wrote and rhymed in the stillness of those working hours, her fellow nurses began showing interest in her compositions. Many discussions opened up because their hearts were touched by her poetry. These poems have been collected along with short personal essays she has written over the years. Isn’t it nice that she has preserved those meaningful poems for her posterity. But the real story is how she influenced those other nurses, for good, without realizing that was a story within itself?

 

As you write about your interests, experiences, and testimony, make the pages reek YOU. Yes, make sure the reader can smell your essence and the crushed walnut oil of your ink and pen (so to speak).

 

Here is a very short list of options you can adopt as a format for your personal history. Actually, whose to stop you from using every idea you have ever heard of? Feel free to be as creative, innovative, and as lovely as you want.

 

1. Tell the story behind the photo – For Easter, I wanted to take a picture of all the kids, but one son ranted and wailed. I told him it was alright that he “cried” in the picture, and he did. This photo is not about Easter, it’s really about the stubbornness of this child, immortalized.
2. Write poems that tell about your life, your testimony, your feelings. Don’t be afraid to express yourself – I’ve seen poems written by burly men who never displayed their feelings for anyone. They wrote beautifully.
3. Write short vignettes about your life – Journal entries, travel itineraries, memories, friends, experiences, things you want your children to know about you – I’ve taken to writing something before Church every Sunday. It’s taken me weeks to write about our recent trip and now I’m writing about my calling. I might look through my sporadic journals and pull something from there next.
4. You may want to include photos, art, genealogy, pictures from magazines, programs, ticket stubs, letters, recipes, newspaper clippings. That’s all fine, but make sure you write explanations about it all and why it’s important to you – I looked through a person’s personal “encyclopedia” which literally gathered the history of all things that have touched her life. Colorful to look at, so many memories piled on top of one another.
5. Make your history sing!! Be the go-to place for family lore, stories, testimony, traditions, family jokes, pictures, etc. – We have a journal of one of my husband’s ancestors who only wrote about spiritual experiences. Whenever one of the kids needed something for Mutual, a talk, or spiritual example of some kind, they always sought out this book where they knew they could quickly find something significant, instead of having to plow through other thoughts and writings. Other histories have specialized in other areas, making it easy to find what we need.
6. Write poems to, and about, your spouse or your children – Personalizing your own writings toward people you love will make them want to read your writings. Sometimes writing your deepest thoughts is easier than vocalizing them. And they don’t always have to be serious, or even about love. 

 

Please don’t leave this world having said nothing to your posterity.