An autobiography is not about pictures; it’s about the stories; it’s about honesty and as much truth as you can tell without coming too close to other people’s privacy.

~Boris Becker

How much do you know about your family? Do you remember your grandmother? Do you know the name of your great-grandfather? Do you have a family album with pictures of relatives whom you know only by name. Maybe you want to know more about your parents as children, what schools they attended, what parties they went to, and the city or town they grew up in. Probably they had some very interesting experiences.

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by himself/herself.

A biography is the story of a person’s life written by someone else.

Write your autobiography as a project for one week. Before you begin it, ask your parents for information about yourself as a child and also some information about themselves. Interview them. Do not be discouraged if they say at first that they have nothing to tell you.

Be a good interviewer.

Ask them definite questions, such as Where were you born? and What kind of community was it? The answers to these questions will be excellent material for your autobiography. You might title this chapter “My Ancestors.”

The second chapter will be about yourself – where you were born, what your mother can tell you about yourself as a child, the earliest first days in school, your most memorable birthdays, and similar things.

Here is a part of my autobiography:

“When I asked my father where I was born, he told me that I was born in the heart of the city of Cebu. There were only a few streets back then. On each side of the streets were houses made of concrete and wood. Most of them were large. Behind our house were mango trees and flowers of every kind, as my mother loved gardening so much.

I remember that my father made a slingshot for me one day. How proud I was of my slingshot! I got pieces of paper and pressed them into “bullets.” Then I began shooting everyone. My older brother got angry with me. I teased him by pretending to shoot him. I did not mean to, but I did hit him. His forehead bled. I was so frightened that I ran away. My mother gave me the spanking I deserved.

The first time I went to a movie, I was very much excited. There were so many people, so many bright lights. When we entered the movie house, I was frightened by the darkness and the large figures on the screen. It seems to me that I saw a train. It was coming right at me. I thought it would surely run over me. I remember having screamed. I don’t remember anything else.”

The events in this short autobiography I wrote are very simple and familiar. Surely you can remember some of your experiences as a young child. There are interesting stories in every home. The simplest things can be told in a very lively and entertaining manner.

Stories, written and spoken, are invaluable vehicles of communication; they are the link through which we share common experiences and transmit universal truths. A good autobiography or memoir, like any good story, allows us to relate to the author emotionally, share their skin , and understand the forces at work in their life as if we were experiencing the same tensions ourselves.

Writing your memoir costs you little, but pays handsome rewards. Every day of delay is a day lost forever, and increases the possibility that your story will never be told. Do not wait until it is too late.

So go ahead. Write.