Your Story Is Important

During my tour I had the pleasure of chatting with so many amazing humans and one theme kept coming up after I shared my life story:

“I love hearing your stories, but I just don’t think my life is that interesting…”

And to that I say “Wrong.”

First, I want to apologize for whomever made you believe that your story - your LIFE - is not important, full of value and wisdom, and worthy of sharing. Secondly, I need you to understand that your story is uniquely yours because you have something to share with the world, the next generation, or even multiple generations from now. And it doesn’t just have to be the traumatic stuff - though writing about that is helpful for the writer, to be fair. You can write about how you look out your window and love to see the sunlight dappling through the willow in your backyard first thing in the morning to teach people the art of slowing down. You can share your experience with raising 2 children and a golden retriever and the trials, tribulations, and more importantly, triumphs that come with that. Every single human on this planet has an amazing story - the things you’ve experienced, witnessed, been privvy to, and have enjoyed are often ripe fruit for a person who is currently experiencing those things, will never experience those things, or the person needing a lighthouse in the darkness of their life. The things you have gone through are not in vain and one way to make meaning out of the hardships is by alchemizing them through writing.

And ya know, it’s interesting because if I had asked my Granny if she was a writer, she probably would have scoffed and said “no” she was a “wife, mother, and granny” - which is true, however, it was after her passing that I was provided a manila envelope full of poetry, short stories, and diary entries of her life. I had only ever known her as “Granny” and being a young kid, I didn’t think to ask about her life - but here it was, her life, her stories, her experiences compiled into one 8x11 yellowed envelope. Writing her stories and her experiences let her explore her voice, her wishes, and her desires. She talked about the hardness of life on the prairies with my grandpa and raising 5 kids. As an adult who no longer has the ability to ask her questions, I can appreciate the history and the beauty in her words and am grateful she had documented her life in her words so I could experience it through her writing.

I also remember being in grade 6 and finding this book at my local Christian bookstore (yes, I used to be a hardcore Christian child) and it was the transcribed diary of a girl in the 1600s. As I read through her life, I was encouraged to start my own diary keeping, excitedly waiting for someone to unearth my words after I died to marvel at my exciting life:

”Today I was first chair in band class! It was awesome! Summer is kool, Steph is awesome, and life rox!” (diary entry Feb 14, 1994)

Sure, maybe the content was lacking a bit, but I kept writing…knowing that one day my words, my story, my experience would be important to someone, somewhere, some day - even if it was when I was dead. Thankfully, I had those diaries because they came in handy when I wrote my latest book Homecoming: Tales of Travel, Discovery, & Self Acceptance because they contained the nitty gritty details of my emotions, my experiences, my thought processes, and the factual data of happenings as I was experiencing them. I also think this is why I have such a strong memory of my childhood and teen years - because I documented everything. From the incredibly mundane to the super exciting.

I want to mention as well, that we tend to think we need to live these fantastical lives for people to want to read our stories, but in my experience it was when I shared my experience of a more mundane life that connected me with more people - because they could see themselves in my story. If I write about how I fly in a private jet and zip from country to country the only person that would understand that hassle would be T Swift and while I wouldn’t say no to her reading my books, I aim to connect with more people. But let’s even use T Swift as an example (if you aren’t a fan, just skip to the next paragraph lol). She has been sharing her life story her whole career and she has done it through music lyrics. One of the reasons she has such a huge fan base is because her lyrics are about being in, falling in, and falling out of love - lots of people can relate to this. Her songs connect because they focus on the more mundane experiences we all can appreciate together.

So, the moral of this whole post is that I want you to take your life story seriously. I want you to understand that you do have a story worth sharing (if you desire it). You do have a life worth writing about (if you desire it). People will read it. People will connect with it. People want to know about it. Channel my younger self’s unabashed confidence in her diary writing and begin to document your life. It can be a factual recording of your day, it can be poetic verse of how the light cascading across your living room highlighting the dust in the air makes you feel nostalgic and hopeful at the same time, it can be a song about your delicious coffee first thing in the morning. Whatever sparks in your heart, your mind and your soul as being of importance to YOU, make it your job to document it. Even if it never sees the light of day until after you’ve passed, just know the act of writing out your stories will impact someone, somewhere in the future.

Your story is important because YOU are important.

[And if you want accountability, guidance and community in getting your words out there, join me for my the 4 Week Writer’s Workshop happening in November!]