Lenawee County History: Best person to write your life story: you
Over the years, I have had people approach me to ghostwrite their autobiography. While it was an honor to be asked, I felt inadequate to take on the task.
In the end, the best person to accurately reflect you and your life is you.
Taking on a ghostwritten autobiography is a monumental undertaking. From what I have learned from others, it is not simply sitting down to conduct a two-hour interview. It takes weeks, even months, of talking to the person, writing down their basic story and then calls, emails, texts to fill in the blanks that invariably open up.
Then, it comes down to the intent of the autobiography: have they lived an interesting life in itself; are they attempting to build themselves as a hero, or even a victim, in life?
Everyone has a story, and depending how that story is presented makes the difference whether that story is compelling or not.
Several people I have known who are now gone wrote their life story and put it into book form, as a presentation to their immediate family and close friends to remember them by. Those people wrote the story themselves, and in an honest way. They were a person who had many adventures, yet a flawed human just the same. They were not afraid to let that side show. They were not just a traveler and war hero. They wrote about their mistakes and vulnerabilities. For me, that is what makes their story better to read. They didn't write it to be in the spotlight. They were willing to show their human side in a genuine way. For that, my respect for them grew after having read their story, peppered with family moments and observations about global events.
I have been putting together my own story, with life as I have lived and seen it, for my own family and those interested in what made me tick. When I get a spare moment here or there, I record local stories about things I saw built, and demolished; where I was when this or that happened; and what I remember about daily life in each decade and the "little things" that are the big memories.
Those recollections are the ones I cherish. Ten years ago, I was asked by a family with whom I am close if I would take the senior pictures of their oldest, 7 at the time, when she was a senior. Of course, I said. From May 4 to 8, I did just that. Life took our families in opposite directions — theirs to Connecticut. It was noted during the picture sessions that few people keep their promises anymore, and that this appointment kept meant the world to the senior.
That, in turn, meant the world to me.
You are the author of your life story. You can make it great by being honest, doing good, taking the lead and supporting others. In the end, you may not have a best-seller, but to someone out there, you will be an example for others to follow — flaws and all.
Dan Cherry is a Lenawee County historian.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Dan Cherry: Best person to write your life story: you
