mormon-visitingHave you ever read a book about a real teenager who lived a long time ago and wished people would still know who you were hundreds of years from now? Often the way we know about these things is because the teenager kept a diary and other records that helped people learn about her long after she was dead.

Even if you never become famous, your descendents—your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren—will want to know who you are. If you want to make history, you need to get started right now.

The first step is to write your life story up to where you are right now. This might seem like a lot of work, but there are lots of ways to make it easy or fun. Make a list of all the important things that have happened to you in your life and some of your favorite memories. Write each one on a slip of paper and put it into a jar or box you’ve decorated. Every Sunday, pull one slip out of the box and write about it.

If you’re using a computer, just copy the new story into the file, putting it wherever it belongs in your life so far. So if you write about your sixteenth birthday party this week, and your first day of kindergarten next week, you want the kindergarten story first. Just copy it into your life story before your birthday party story. Eventually your life will all be written about and in order. If you find yourself remembering something during the week, take a minute to write about it. If you remember extra details for a story you’ve already written, just add it.

If you’re doing it on paper, put each story on its own sheet of paper and put them into a three-ring binder. Then put the paper in the proper sequence. Use subject dividers to divide your life into the major categories.

If you hate writing, try recording your story. You’ll still want to type it out someday, but for now, at least you’ll be saving the story and your descendents will love being able to actually hear you talking.

Do you feel funny talking to yourself? Try setting up a recording device when your family is talking or your friends are over. Make sure everyone knows they are being recorded so they won’t say anything embarrassing. Start talking about shared memories. You’ll get a lot more information if everyone is contributing memories of the same party or graduation ceremony than if you’re just relying on your own memories.

A lot of teens love scrapbooking. Scrapbooking is another way to save your life story for the future. Make sure you use papers designed to last a long time, and put lots of information into your captions. This doesn’t take the place of a written story, but it adds more to it.

As you’re deciding what to save or write, remember what makes a biography interesting to you when you’re reading. You won’t want to record everything you do every single day, but including a sample typical schedule will be interesting to a teen who might have a very different schedule 100 years from now. Include pictures of your favorite clothes, information about the books you love, and pictures of you and your bedroom. Talk about what school is like.

When you’re choosing events from your life, focus more on the good than the bad. Include some smaller bad things—times you had a trial and learned from it, for instance—but you are more good than bad, so your story should be written that way. Use this as a chance to help your great-great-grandchildren learn something from your life. You’re learning a lot—pass it on.

Try to imagine your story being read 100 years from now. Who will be your biggest fan?

Copyright © 2024 Mormon Youth Beliefs. All Rights Reserved.
This website is not owned by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes called the Mormon or LDS Church). The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the position of the Church. The views expressed by individual users are the responsibility of those users and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church. For the official Church websites, please visit churchofjesuschrist.org or comeuntochrist.org.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This

Share This

Share this post with your friends!