Your Life Story in Six Words

Last Saturday I read this article in the Newspapers and I thought that it is a wonderful idea to summarize your life history in only 6 words.

Your life story. In six words
What would you write in your memoir? Can you sum up your life in six words or less? The Star challenged you to find out.

Everyone has a story to tell. Six words is all they need.

That's what editor Larry Smith discovered when he posted a six-word memoir challenge on his website, smithmag.net, in November, 2006, asking readers to write their life story in precisely six words.

Within the first two months, the site received 15,000 replies. The best have been reproduced in a book that has become a New York Times bestseller, aptly named: Not Quite What I Was Planning.

The idea grew out of an Ernest Hemingway legend. Challenged to write a novel in six words, the master of minimalism purportedly came up with: "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

"After Harvard, had baby with crackhead," wrote one reader in response to the memoir challenge. "I still make coffee for two," wrote another.

Smith also solicited memoirs from the famous. "Yes, you can edit this biography," wrote Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, wrote: "Me see world. Me write stories."

Smith seems to have struck a chord in the current zeitgeist, unleashing a torrent of self-expression not unlike the one launched by Frank Warren when he began inviting people to write their secrets on the back of postcards. Four books later, the concept is still going strong, at PostSecret.blogspot.com.

Here are some of our favourite submissions from readers and a few others.

For sale: Master's degree, never used.
Chris Anderson, Thunder Bay

Mom's schizophrenia changed our family forever.
Lisa Korec, Toronto

Found my soulmate — despite frizzy hair.
Kady Shear, Toronto

Went to France single returned married.
Hellen Mantha, Sarnia

Teleported into adulthood by dad's death.
Adam Preston, Simcoe

Much love to give; no recipient.
Thomas Wong, Richmond Hill

Childhood, motherhood, work, work, work, work.
Yvonne Parti, Toronto

Started out strong, what went wrong?
Robert Smith, Boston

Battled injustice wherever I saw it.
Michel Ladouceur, Kingston

I have exceeded my shelf life.
Raymond Fadel, Toronto

I didn't come here to surrender.
Lloyd Therien, Kingston

Six siblings makes girl grow tough!
Jeanna Chan, Ottawa

Married wrong girl but we're happy.
Simon Leigh, Toronto

I found God in a tipi.
Ian Ross, Penokean Hills

I met my wife on AOL.
Steve Meggeson, Scarborough

I have studied my life away.
David Walia, Brampton

Four kids make life wonderfully chaotic.
Jane Cotnam, Mississauga

Seriously I am who I am.
Michael Cassidy, Vancouver

I have not accomplished much...yet.
Daniel Rudmin, Vancouver

Happily raised two strong successful sons.
Krista von Engelbrechten, Pickering

Overeducated janitor; My ambition lacks ignition.
Chelsea Maloney, Dunnville

Financially good; everything else a bust.
Emanuel Samuel, North York

"Somebody put me on the Internet..."
Russell Peters, Comedian, Los Angeles

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Challenging, isn't it? Would you like to try?

This is my attempt: Girl always wondering what, when & why :)

What is yours?


http://www.thestar.com/article/346294