Every time the lottery grows to multi millions, most people play the entertaining game of “what would you do with the money?”
Paying off a home or buying one, cars, vacation villas, jewelry, designer clothes…there are a million ways to unburden yourself of your newfound winnings and each of us has our own ideas of how we’d do it. (Although, paying off a mortgage or buying a home is the number one way most Americans confess they’d spend their money).
And I’m not any different. I’d pay off the house.
Maybe take a vacation. Definitely would pay for the boys’ college and pay off the small remainder of my car loan.
But my extravagance, if I was one of those billionaire winners, after I covered all the things that add stress to life, is something more outlandish.
My own private island?
Hardly.
How I Would Spend My Lottery Billions
I would make a list of all the things I have ever wanted to do or experience, but because I chose another path in life, I never did.
I’m not talking about buying a Ferrari. That was never something I saw myself doing.
I mean things like moving to Maine and becoming a lobster (or is it lobsta?) fisherman.
Exciting things that could’ve been. Lives I could’ve lead. Very “Midnight Library.” (Love that book’s concept.)
Then I would take that list, find people who are currently doing those things, and pay them to show me their world. And I could experience all of those things–if just for a week. <Sigh.>
That’s why I love memoir.
Before I discovered its beauty, I thought memoirs were trashy tell-all books that celebrities paid others to write.
Now, I know better.
A beautifully written memoir can help you do as George R.R. Martin said,
“I have lived a thousand lives and I’ve loved a thousand loves. I’ve walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read.”
I’ve read memoirs about lobster and crab fishermen, addicts, a twenty-something with a terminal illness, a funeral director, a homesteader, someone who walked the Pacific Coast Trail (and another who walked the Camino de Santiago), a trekker to Mt. Everest, a girl trapped in an attic, and countless memoirs of people trying to find themselves among awe-inspiring settings.
With some memoirs I came away wanting to switch places with the author, while others I gave thanks that I wasn’t in their position.
But all of their stories made me appreciate their experiences.
Reading builds empathy and no genre builds it quite the some way memoir does. After spending several hundred pages with an author, how can you not feel something for them?
Many people tell me they want to tell their story but few follow through. Much of that is because they wonder if their story is worth telling. I assure you someone is waiting to live life the way you have or to learn something from the challenges you’ve experienced.
While your perspective may be unique, your story is about connection, and helping people see things through your lens. By doing so, you help people not feel so alone. And that is an incredible service.
Until I am able to find a way to live a thousand lives of my own, I will escape into the adventure of memoir.
I hope you will too.
If you have a story to share, but don’t have the time to do it, contact me today. We’ll see if we have a compatible view on the project and a mutual respect of venturing into the unknown.
Until then, keep living.