My first post shoutout! Cheers ref :'D! It's great how relationships work like that on Hubski. I'm beginning to recognize a lot of the users here and even know the kinds of things they're interested in or opinions they hold; yourself included haha. I like to think I'm a fairly friendly bloke though, so feel free to engage me anytime! :D

Anyway, sorry I'm a little late to the party, my new place has spectacularly bad internet so I've been offline for awhile.

It was an interesting read. I see where that author is coming from, particularly about living in the past. When I was in 9th grade I moved to Ireland from the UAE, and the UAE ended up being my go-to point of conversation. I had so many stories to tell and things to talk about from back there. My current girlfriend told me recently "When we first met, it felt like you hadn't fully left UAE behind. You were here, but not really". Living in the past is a dangerous thing.

At the same time though, I do think that there is a lot of merit to looking at life through the lens of a story. someguyfromcanada already mentioned that there are always the anecdotes which you can retell. But there's also something a little bit deeper.

For example, "Today I went for a walk in the park" isn't very particularly exciting. But if you were trying to write it down as a story, it forces you to think about and notice things. What did you see? Smell? There was that funny moment with the dog chasing ducks in the lake, his owner struggling for control. That tree reminds you of a tree you always climbed as a kid. Billy fell out of that tree didn't he? Ah Billy, what a guy.

Suddenly your mundane walk in the park is really, really interesting, just from attempting to tell yourself your own story, your outlook on events (and by extension your entire life) changes dramatically, and how you see your life is a key part in shaping you as an individual. That "story" you tell yourself is a powerful thing.

On an obliquely related note, this discussion reminds me of an exchange two characters had in a book called The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Here's a link to the relevant part of that book, if you're interested.

My life has not been a series of fluid transitions, each building upon the last stage. My story is not a narrative in the traditional sense. Even though almost everyone builds upon their experiences I have no idea why most things in my life have happened or the reasons behind them.

I think of my life as mostly regular day to day stuff, punctuated with tellable anecdotes that I can share. IRL I do not talk much about the monotonous daily moments which comprise the majority of my life such as grocery shopping for my mother, drafting contracts, going to silly movies with my nieces and nephews, etc. But give me an opening to tell a story about how Charles Barkley bought me a few scotches, running into a barn on fire to save horses, sleeping in a wilderness tent and eating off a Frisbee for 3 months, flying a biplane across state, etc. and I gladly will. Thankfully I have hundreds of those!

Those are stories that are worth telling but are not my life. Just anecdotes. And they may not be entirely factual. Especially the older anecdotes as memories fade and evolve over time even without malicious intent. I think I know what my earliest memory is, and my mother has confirmed that it happened the way I remember it, but I can't be sure either of us is correct.

But the one thing they have in common is that they exhibit consistent personality traits. So maybe that is the autobiography that I am constructing for myself even though it may not be true. Dunno.

And I will never know as I do not get to write the epilogue.