Story of My Life

“Write what should not be forgotten.”

—Isabel Allende

I think this is a great approach to the art of nonfiction, specifically memoir writing. Everyone has a story to tell, so when you don’t know what to write, simply write about something you believe should not be forgotten.

I’m not sure my ideas for a potential memoir of my own are necessarily important enough to never be forgotten, but they each mean something to me and represent significant moments in my life. At the very least, they are stories I should never forget.

Idea 1: The day I met my brother’s girlfriend

My brother wanted to ask his girlfriend of just a few weeks to the homecoming dance his senior year of high school when I was a freshman. He’s not exactly the artsy type, so I took over sign-making duties while he bought some flowers in her favorite colors. We stood together in our garage, waiting for her to pull up to our house, and when she did, our mom opened the garage door to reveal us. I remember that she seemed really shy and docile then, but that was five and a half years ago, and we’re basically sisters now. She’s my brother’s first (and only) girlfriend, so when she came into our life, I became aware of the inevitability of growing older and that my brother was now part of another family, separate from our own.

Idea 2: Memories of Georg, my aunt’s ex-boyfriend

Of my mom’s two sisters, the youngest one never married, but for the first ten years of my life (and five years before it) she dated Georg. Even though they never married, I still saw him as my uncle, and I have lots of wonderful memories of him, including a time when he and my aunt visited us in Michigan to go sky diving (they always did crazy adventurous things like that together). After they separated, I never really saw him again, even though he works at the same school as my aunt, so they see each other every day. It showed me how fragile relationships can be, even the ones lasting fifteen years that seem so perfect, stable, and invincible. But sometimes, people want different things as they age, causing their paths to diverge.

Idea 3: The day I got matching pineapples tattoos with my mom in Hawaii

My family and I went to Hawaii for vacation over the holidays of 2018. I already had multiple tattoos at this point, but I knew I wanted to get a pineapple one specifically in Hawaii. After researching the best-rated places, my mom and I went to downtown Lahaina on one of our last days of the trip to get it done. It wasn’t until we were walking into the tattoo parlor that my mom told me she wanted to get a tattoo as well. I remember feeling shocked because she originally disapproved of my tattoos, but now she wanted one herself. At the time, our relationship was a little rocky, and this moment brought us closer again, so I probably shouldn’t forget about it.