Your life is like a book, filled with unique stories that reflect the depth and color of your existence, tie the past to the present, and illustrate your life’s experiences. You may remember these life stories at family gatherings or in annual holiday letters, but how many of your life’s stories will be written down for others to enjoy and learn from?

Personal history provides a way to preserve your life’s stories and illustrate them. It’s a way to be remembered and inspire future generations. By recording your tales, you’ll create an enduring legacy.

 

Why Tell Your Story?

When you tell your story, you’ll discover these benefits:

1. Gain insight into your life as you document your experiences;
2. Lead by example, helping others to overcome hardships and continue;
3. “Set the record straight,” listing your true thoughts and feelings;
4. Record your values and tell how they affected your actions;
5. Preserve the past and provide a vital connection between generations;
6. Leave an imprint of a well-lived life, and
7. Give your loved ones a priceless gift that will be treasured beyond material goods.

Choose Your Words can help you write your story in your own words in a number of ways. Please review our list of choices to begin your story

Memories are the threads that bind our past to our present to form the fabric of life experience. Libby Atwater

• "Listening to Voices that Make the Past Come Alive" in Museum of Ventura County Newsletter, May/June 2010.

• "Learn To Turn Your Memories Into History" in Ventura County Star, June 3, 2009.

• Libby Atwater’s story, “A Worthwhile Search,” appears in the Association of Personal Historians just released anthology, “My Words Are Gonna Linger: The Art of Personal History.” To learn more about this compelling collection of stories, visit The APH Anthology, www.personalhistorians.org/anthology.php.

 

 

• Ethical wills skip the finances and share life's wisdom instead