Six-word Memoir

Smithmag is having a six-word memoir contest. Pat and I read about it on the Freakonomics blog.

As the site points out, this "could be the title of your autobiography, or maybe your epitaph."

Hemingway summed himself up with these six words:
"For sale: baby shoes, never used."
I guess that means he was born an old man?

I thought about mine for a while. On the one hand, I thought it wouldn't make sense to write a memoir at age 22, assuming I've got a ways to go. After all , nothing has "happened." No, that's bullshit. Really, I could write a memoir, if I thought it was anyone's business. It would be about as big as an encyclopedia and full of drama and adventure and romance.

The real challenge here is brevity. You have to know yourself well to be that succinct about your life. It really forces you to evaluate who you are and what you want your life to mean. Maybe next year I'll actually give NaNoWriMo a half-decent shot...but for now getting 6 words out about myself is tough enough.

If I had to sum up my life so far I would say that I am someone who has fun and isn't afraid to break the rules. I am someone who does what I want and follows my gut. Lastly, I am someone who leaves her mark and when I've been somewhere, you'll know I was there.

Bearing that in mind here's what I came up with. My memoir, in six words:

"I stepped barefoot in wet cement."

That'll do, for now but I'm not crazy about it...I guess life is a work in prorgress.

Life is a work in progress.

What would yours be?