We often look at our lives through the lens of the everyday—the chores, the shifts, the quiet moments on the porch. We tend to think that because we weren’t world leaders or famous explorers, our stories are just “ordinary.” But if there is one thing I have learned in my 70-plus years, it is this: there is no such thing as an ordinary life.
To your grandchildren and the generations that follow, your life is not ordinary. It is a historical epic.
Think about it for a moment. You have lived through the transition from rotary phones to pocket-sized supercomputers. You have seen the world change in ways your ancestors could never have imagined. More importantly, you have navigated the universal experiences of love, loss, hard work, and resilience. Those lessons are the real inheritance your family needs.
The biggest hurdle most of us face is the feeling that we aren’t “writers.” We imagine that to tell our story, we need to be a literary giant like Stephen King. But the goal of The Legacy Project isn’t to create a masterpiece for the New York Times Best-Seller list. The goal is to be a Family Historian.
Being a family historian means capturing the “smell of the kitchen” on a Sunday afternoon in 1965. It means describing the nerves you felt on your first day of work or the specific way your own parents laughed. These details are the things that get lost to time if they aren’t written down. Once they are gone, they are gone forever.
This is why we created the Legacy Project. It’s designed to take that “head-exploding” feeling of starting a book and break it down into simple, manageable steps. You don’t have to write the whole book today; you just have to capture one memory.
Your grandchildren won’t care about perfect grammar or sophisticated metaphors. They will care about hearing your voice on the page. They will want to know what it was like to drive across the country before GPS, or how you felt when you held them for the first time.
Your life is a series of chapters that only you can write. Don’t leave the pages blank. Whether you use our course or just a simple notebook, I encourage you to start today. Your story is the greatest gift you will ever give your family.
Warmly,
Bill & Marilyn
Founders, Canadian Senior Moment