lifestyle

Your life story. In 6 words.

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If you had to pack your entire life into a suitcase that held only six words, what words would you bring?

Just six.

It’s not a great deal. Just one little sentence burdened with telling so much. The sum total of all the smiles you sported and the frowns you never turned upside down. An itty bitty package as dense as the sun. Bursting with experience. Positively radiant with the energy of all the opportunities you didn’t fritter away and the conversations you chose to have.

I’ve long been preoccupied with telling my story. Not just mine but the stories of my family. But that’s an awful lot of pressure. And I might turn to the bean counter in this whimsical little hypothetical and beg of him or her: give me all the words you have, and another lifetime to compile them. Give them to me now, that I might do our adventure justice.

But there’s a certain beauty in condensing all of that, hard though it might be.

In 2006, Smith Magazine started the 6 Word Memoir project. It took its inspiration from Ernest Hemingway who – it was said – was challenged with telling a short story in six words. Not just part of a story, the whole thing. His tale?

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” [Sometimes it is written never used].

Devastating. David Wyffels illustrated some of the impressive entries received over the years for Oprah’s O Magazine and we have chosen some of these to show you here:

As for me?

Curious, he asked. It answered absurdly.

What about you? What’s your six word memoir and why did you choose it?