your story matters (tell it).

I have this plaque on my wall in my office that has the title of this post on it. And I couldn’t love it more. Because I believe it with my whole being.

The theme of this week’s Group Blogging Experience 2 (GBE2) is “do-over.” And many of the posts are along the same stream of thought that I have. Oh, I wouldn’t do anything over, because it has all made me who I am today. Most of the time I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Except.

There are totally things I would do over. Things I would change about my wedding, about all the macaroni and cheese I stuffed into my body, and the number of times I opted not to go for a walk around the block with  my Mom when it was really some of my favorite times, but I was just lazy.

But this biggest thing that I regret, is not capturing the stories from my Grandfather and Grandmother. No one expected to lose them at such young ages. We always thought we had more time, time to record their voices and write down their stories. But we didn’t.

And as memories start to fade, I get scared that I am going to lose their stories altogether, the few I remember. So now? I may over-document things and I don’t care, because if I could do it over again, I would change things. I would write their stories. I would make my Mom lug our 75 lb video camera up to their house and record their laughter.

If we get to have children one day… they will know our story. They will know their Grandparent’s story, because we are writing it here. We are taking 250,780 pictures at every family gathering. We are video taping it. This love of documentation? I got it from my Mom, and every time she shoved the video camera in my face I sighed heavily…but now? Those old home videos are treasures.

So tell your story, tell the story of the elders in your families. It’s a treasure that you cannot get back, even though one day you’ll want to.