"If you could sum up a formative period in your life in six words, what words would you choose? I recently posited that question to two different groups of people - Adventist college students and Adventist retirees. I got the idea from the chunky little book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Famous and Obscure Writers. The book's editors got the idea from Ernest Hemingway, who once wrote: 'For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.'"Following, Dr. Nash gave a small sample of the six-word memoirs from the book and then, some from the Adventist college students and retirees. (I strongly encourage you to read the whole article. It's not too long and very good.)
After reading the article to my fellow church members, I told how Dr. Nash began my Publication Editing class last school year by explaining six-word memoirs and then had us students write our own and share them with the class instead of just the same old name-major-hometown information. I remember my six-word memoir: For international students, I-20 means everything. (I had just come back into the States after Christmas break and had had a problem with my I-20 student visa, so this was on my mind during that first class period.) Then I shared another six-word memoir that I had written last night: Filled out SM application. Still waiting... This was a nice segue into the next part of my mum's Sabbath School program, where she asked Bryn to tell a little about her upcoming year as an SM to Egypt.
This afternoon my grandparents invited my family, along with my mum's sister and her daughter and granddaughter who are visiting from Alberta for the long weekend, over for Sabbath lunch. Later on, we had a worship together and my grandma asked each person to participate by coming up with one part of the worship. When my turn came, I handed each person a piece of paper and a pen and asked them to write their own six-word memoirs. Here they are (and yes, we had a French immersion student in our midst):
Anticipating the future, missing the past.
École le violon domente le piano.
Sweet dog. Lived, loved, and died.
Fell hard. Broke wrist. Much pain.
Traveled far. Arrived safely. Visited family.
The eastern USA is really terrible.
Work, work, work, eat, sleep, repeat.
Nearer to 90 than 19 years-old.
Wind, wind, rain, rain, bang, bang.
Transferring to Southern opened new opportunities
Family, friends, flowers, fun, free, photos.
Life gets better day by day.
I love trying out new writing ideas and seeing the variety of each person's tastes and experiences. So, now it's your turn. Why don't you try writing a six-word memoir? I'd love to read them!
