by Kathleen M. Muldoon
When I was in sixth grade, my first homework for language arts was to write my autobiography-the story of my life so far. The teacher gave us a week to complete the assignment, but I didn’t start mine until the Sunday night before they were due. By the time I’d finished, I was surrounded with enough sheets of crumpled lined paper to wallpaper our apartment. Getting started had been the biggest problem and I finally settled on (yawn!) “I was born . . .” as my first three words.
On Monday I discovered that most of my classmates had used the same three words to introduce their life stories. But two had not. One, a quiet boy named Paul, began his autobiography with this sentence: “I didn’t begin living until I freed my dragon.” Wow! That one really made us sit up and listen. The other, my best friend Mary Ann, started hers: “‘SHE DID IT ALL’-that’s what I want on my tombstone.” Awesome!
It’s funny that I can’t remember the complete first sentence of anyone else’s autobiographies, including my own. We learned that Paul’s “dragon” was the anger he felt at his father after his parents’ divorce. Paul’s autobiography wasn’t written on notebook paper like most of ours; he had presented his in comic book form! Equally creative, Mary Ann had drawn stair steps. At the bottom, she put the boring stuff- like her birth place, date she lost her first tooth, and so forth. On each of the first few steps, she’d pasted a paragraph on major accomplishments in her life-he time her family had moved across the country and she’d had to make new friends; the year she triumphed after being in a body cast for six months for a spinal curvature; her fourth grade art project that earned her the first of many blue ribbons. On the upper steps, she’d put in those hopes and dreams that she would accomplish in her lifetime to come. At the very top, she’d drawn a tombstone with the inscription with which she’d begun her autobiography.
If Mary Ann hadn’t been my best friend, I would have been ticked that her life story made most of ours look pretty pitiful. But I learned a lot. I learned that I could tell my story in whatever way I wanted. I didn’t have to start at the beginning, I could start in the middle and then go back to “I was born . . .” I didn’t have to write my “me story,” I could make it into a video! Or illustrate it. Or put it in a poem. Or- oh, there are a zillion ways to tell our stories!
What about you? Have you started your autobiography? If not, why not? So what if you’re not famous-yet. Don’t wait for a homework assignment; begin it today, right where you are. It’s fun, and by the time you’re finished, you’ll know yourself even better than you did before. Of course, there is that first sentence. Have you already got one in mind, one that shouts “me”? Orbit would like to see the first line of your autobiography. If yours is really creative, you might just see it in the January 2006 issue. Are you up for the challenge? Send the first sentence of your life story by December 2, 2005, to:
Just 4 Kids
United Spinal Association
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177
Or e-mail your submission to: Orbit@unitedspinal.org.
Try to keep your sentence short-no longer than 25 words, if you can. Long sentences are hard to follow. Include your full name, address, age, school you attend, and your grade. Send along a photo or artwork if you’d like but remember, these cannot be returned. (Copies of original art are okay as long as they’re clear, in case we want to reproduce them.)
Have fun with your autobiography and, in the meantime, watch for the December issue for another opportunity to participate in Just 4 Kids.
Kathleen M. Muldoon is a children’s book author and writing instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.
