Childhood
PHASES OF LIFE
To help you get started, organize and to break down your LIFE STORY writing into small, bite-size (achievable) chunks!
Your birthplace and date and your name
Earliest memories
The people in your early life and what they were like and your relationships with them then
The home(s) you lived in
Friends
Pets
Activities, games, entertainment (radio, TV, outdoor and indoor games, playtime with family, friends, on your own)
School experience
Stories that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Home life and daily life routines
Major world/local events and your experience of them (Pearl Harbor, WWII, Kennedy shot, MLK shot, moon landing, other war times, 9/11, etc.)
Family History
(Could be just parents and grandparents or whomever you wish to include)
Your parents – Who are/were they, who were their families and what are their backgrounds?
How your parents met and had you
Father’s family
Mother’s family
Father’s employment/Mother’s employment
Any stories of family members going back in time
Any special family members
What this ancestry means to you
Pre-Adolescence and Adolescence
Early Adulthood or College (if applicable)
Early Parenting Years
Family Growing Up Years
Your Children Become Adults and Have Children of their own
The people in your early life and what they were like and your relationship with them then
The home(s) you lived in, home life, daily life routines
Activities, games, entertainment, friends, pets, interests, cars
School experience
Love interests
Thoughts of your future
Stories that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Major world/local events and your experience of them
The people in your early life and what they were like and your relationship with them then
The home(s) you lived in, home life, daily life routines
Friends
What you were learning (what you wished you were learning)
Romantic relationships (marriage and children, if applicable)
Activities, entertainment, interests
Challenges and successes
Work experience
Stories/milestones that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Major world/local events and your experience of them
Relationships (how they are changing; new ones; importance; issues)
Becoming a parent
Home and home life, daily life routines, work and play, focus
Entertainment, activities, fun
Challenges
Successes
Stories/milestones that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Major world/local events and your experience of them
Relationships (changing, growing, new ones)
Being a parent, growing as a parent/person
Home and home life, daily life routines
Community
Work
Entertainment, activities, fun, interests
Challenges
Successes
Losing loved ones
Stories that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Major world/local events and your experience of them
Relationships with children as adults; other relationships
Friends and others
Becoming a grandparent
Home and home life, daily life routines
Work, retirement
Entertainment, activities, fun, interests
Challenges
Successes
Losing loved ones
Stories that stand out in your memory (good and bad)
Reflections on aging and a life well lived, lessons learned, words of wisdom