Need some encouragement to work on your personal history? Look no further!
We often read articles in the Deseret News Mormon Times Edition. Of course I like articles that relate to technology and family history. One of my favourite columnists is Emily Jensen who writes a column called Today in the Bloggernacle (“presenting the best from the world of LDS oriented blogs”). On 21 October her column included the following:
Personal histories: “I don’t know what to write.” “I don’t have time to do it right now.” “I don’t know how to do it.” And “No one even cares.” These are the four roadblocks to doing “Personal and Family Histories” this blogger dispels in an information-filled post. Here are just a few ideas for “I don’t know how to do it”: “Make an audio file of you talking about your history. You could do it in the car on the way to work, while getting ready for the day, in one of your favorite locations or while you’re sitting in bed.” Or, “Write a poem about an aspect of your life.” Or even, “Focus on one topic and make a list of things about you concerning that topic.” And there are so many more good ideas and tips. Click in!
The link is to an article at the Mormon Woman blog entitled “Personal and Family Histories: Getting Past the Roadblocks”
In case the link above doesn’t work, here is the url:
http://mormonwoman.org/2011/10/19/personal-and-family-histories-getting-past-roadblocks/
This sort of parallels my experience.
An article I read suggested “Instead of starting out chronologically stating your life events (year by year that is), try compiling stories by topic.” It then goes on to make numerous suggestions of topics to write on. http://www.familyhistoryquickstart.com/writing-your-personal-history/
Suddenly a light went on! My attempts to keep a journal or personal history have always failed. I think a year and a half is the maximum I have ever maintained any sort of journal. It tends to degenerate into a boring sameness. Much of my life is very routine and I am (by and large) very comfortable with that. People whose lives are full of danger and excitement tend to come to a short if dramatic end. I have things I still want to accomplish before departing this life. Incurring danger deliberately just so that I can tell everyone that I live dangerously seems rather pointless to me. I get more satisfaction from being in a situation where I can help people in various ways.
Writing my personal history by topic seems more interesting because after a page or two, my reader is introduced to a different aspect of my life’s experience.
I started off with the topics suggested in the link above, then added and removed topics to fit my situation. I encourage you to look at the article. (I checked and it is still available.) I also used Google images to find photos of certain things. e.g models of automobile I used to own