The Gift

For my fiftieth birthday, my daughter gave me a journal. "For you to write your story," she said.\n\nI laughed. "I'm not a writer."\n\n"Everyone has a story, Mom."\n\nI started writing that night. Just memories at first. My childhood in a small town. My first love. The year I moved to the city. Meeting my husband. Having her.\n\nI filled the whole journal in three months. I bought another. And another.\n\nI've filled twelve journals now. They're not for anyone else. They're for me. A record of a life lived — the joy, the pain, the ordinary moments.\n\nMy daughter doesn't know what she started. She just gave me a journal. But she gave me back my story.\n\nEveryone has a story. You don't have to be a writer to tell it. You just have to be brave enough to start.