This is fascinating to me. Almost everyone here is saying that they view their lives as a story, but I really don't. Actually, up until now I haven't really given it a lot of thought. I guess I always found my life far too dull to qualify as a 'story'. When I think about it, what makes a great story to me is often not the story itself, but the way it's told. I remember my high school English teacher saying that the best short story she's ever read by a student was set in a waiting room of a clinic over a span of about 2 minutes. You can turn almost anything into a great story just by the way you tell it. When I think about it from that perspective, I could actually begin to think of my life as a story. I suppose my problem was thinking of my life from the perspective of an outsider looking in. From that point of view, my life is definitely mundane and uneventful. However, when I think about trying to "tell the story of my life", all my thoughts and experiences make things that look mundane from the outside fun and interesting to myself. It's incredible that just by that small shift in perspective; viewing my life as a story rather than a series of events, that I feel I could build a better appreciation for it.
It's incredible that just by that small shift in perspective -- viewing my life as a story rather than a series of events -- that I feel I could build a better appreciation for it.
Yes, you can look at it from different angles and lenses, depending on the story you want to tell. You can be a hero or a victim. You can tell a story in which you are powerless, or you can tell the same story in which the outcome was determined by your choices. It depends on what details you pick.