Moment one that caught my eye was when Beck said “A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important.” It kind of stuck to me because it brought clarity to why I gave the self narrative that I did during my practice grad school interview. I didn’t put a ton of thought into exactly what I said but I naturally started at the first chronological spot of my life that has meaning to the people who gave me the interview and I told my story in a way that has meaning in the context of the interview. Another bit that stood out to me was when storytelling was described as a way of making sense of the world around us. This stood out to me because towards the beginning high school and college when I was presented with a new confusing environment I would reflect on my “life story” to try and connect what was happening now with what has happened before and what will happen in the future and it really helped me adjust to my new environment pretty quickly. The final part that stood out to me was “the act of framing our lives as a narrative is neither negative or positive, it just is” and I think that this part is referring to how as people we usually make logical connections as narratives because that’s how we naturally perceive things. I thought of it like using a fallen tree to cross a stream, the trees purpose isn’t necessarily to help you cross a stream but you can use it to cross a stream but it could also break and make you fall in. You just never know.
I loved how you explained why the first instance stood out to you by comparing it with a time where you considered your own narrative in your life. For the second point, I thought that referring to a point in your life in which what was said in the text helped you was a powerful anecdote. The metaphor for the third point did a great job of explaining your thoughts on this quote in simpler terms.
I really liked when you talked about how in high school or college you reflected on your life story to get a better focus on your environment. I feel like I do that too sometimes, just to really see what is happening around me and get a better sense of where I am in life.