Is your life story remarkable?
Over the past months, I have been thinking about the power of sharing our life stories. Have you ever told someone something about yourself and they say, “oh wow, that is a very interesting background “? Has your response been “no, it’s not that remarkable, many people have experienced similar things”? That is exactly how I have responded to people's comments when I share my story with them. It has been my way of normalizing and minimizing my unique life experiences. However, this year as I celebrate the huge milestone of living abroad for 20 years, I am determined to celebrate my journey and no longer take my experiences for granted.
In this blog post, I will share how I am approaching telling my story to commit publicly to ensure that I follow through. This officially kicks off my "Her Story" series, where I will share different experiences and lessons learned.
Background
In 2019, I had the strong desire to start writing down my story. I set a goal to write my story by the time I turned 35 in 2020. Well, many unexpected things happened differently last year like a global pandemic and having a baby. Having my son rekindled my desire to tell my story. I have decided to take steps this year and start sharing my experiences with the world. This is one of my bold 2021 goals.
Why am I telling my story?
I like to start by asking myself what my motivation is and the outcome that I hope to accomplish by doing it with everything I do. As I began to think about why I wanted to tell my story, I realized that the reasons why I wanted to embark on this journey varied vastly. Some of them include:
Celebrate how far I have come: I realize that every experience I have been through has been crucial to getting to where I am today.
Create a catalog of my experiences: I have been through many different experiences that I have forgotten, and this is a good chance for me to collect all the memories.
Be able to tell my son about my journey so far: I want to share my life stories with my son as he gets older.
Stretch myself and try something new: Writing my story is a learning experience for me. It will help me learn new skills and leverage more of my strengths.
Rediscover passions that I lost: especially when you are just trying to survive, you neglect things we love doing. I want to rekindle some of the things I used to be passionate about.
Inspire others: I get inspired by hearing other people's stories, and I want to inspire others by sharing my experiences.
What is holding me back?
As I embark on this new and scary journey, a few thoughts are holding me back from doing this amazing thing.
Fear of hurting people's feelings: Our life experiences are typically tied to other people's lives. By telling my story, I want to make sure that people I care about do not get hurt in the process.
Feeling reluctant to tell my whole story: permitting myself to be vulnerable and share parts of my story that I do not like talking about is something I have to push myself to do.
Being hesitant to re-live the sad experiences: there are things that I have been through that have been suppressed in my memory. I do not necessarily want to think about them, but I know I should in order to move on.
How am I going to approach telling my story?
Although I have some fears and concerns about sharing my story, I have decided that it is something that I need to do for my growth. For things that seem too big or scary, I create a plan and start working on them one task at a time. I will be taking the following steps over the next months on my quest to tell my story.
Start gathering my memories, pictures, and anything that will help me remember a phase of my life.
Talk to people who have been a part of my life to get different perspectives and things I do not remember.
Overcome my fear of sharing some parts of my journey.
Start writing parts of my story down as they come to me.
Share my stories, experiences, and lessons that I have learned on my journey so far.
Final Thoughts
If you have ever wondered how remarkable your story is, remember that you are the only one who has lived the life you have and walked in your shoes - Your story is special and unique.
And if you have been thinking about writing or sharing your story, I encourage you to join me on this bold journey.
Time to Reflect
What part of your story do you want to tell people but have not permitted yourself to?
How do you think sharing your story will help others?
What is holding you back from sharing your story?
How will you overcome your fears and take the bold step to share your story?