Life in a story

If you had to write your life story in a story, what would it be? What moments and experiences would you describe? What friends and loves would you harbor in words? What thoughts, ideas, feelings, and emotions would you express? We all have a story, and many, like mine, only of interest to a few outside our friends and family. The key, however, is making your story universal, find the connection to the whole of life, events and the world people can find commonality.

And where is this leading? Well, I plan to work on my story in chapters of times, not in sequence or in any logic, but just connections to the whole of my life. For you see, I can put the story of my life around one pivotal moment in time, a letter from the College of Engineering at the University of Denver December 24, 1968 to inform me I was suspended from the College and on probation by the University, and expected to enroll in the winter quarter under academic oversight.

So I can look at my life in three sections. The time up to then, the time from then to about 6 months later after finishing basic training in the USAF, Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas, and the time from then on when I life in the real world in Sacramento, California. These are the three lenses I look at my life with, my youth to 19, the six months at 19, and the rest of my life. They're all with me, in my personality, temperament, and experience, my whole being.

After basic training I was transferred to McClellan AFB to work in a top secret organization, now declassified, to work in depot maintenance for our worldwide network of monitoring stations for watching the nuclear nations under the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. We, like our counterparts in other nations, watch the world's proliferation of nuclear weapons and weapons testing anywhere on this planet. In the event of a new war, we were the scorekeepers.

The time of the 19th year reshaped my past through the times into the future. It was the time I became who I am today, everything I am now I can trace back to being 19, and to the times leading to becoming 19, a very crocked line from there to here. And while I've added many experiences, you can't escape your beginnings from your genes, family, and youth. It set the stage and you play the part, write the new lines in the script of your life.

And so, the story is off, and you can follow it here.