Genesis Stories

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Lesson 2 Genesis Stories

What is a Genesis Story?

A Genesis story is a story of a beginning, but not necessarily the beginning. It’s a good place to start a history because there are so many beginnings in your life:
computer on desk

Photo by Andrew Neel

Your Life is Full of Genesis Moments

Your first day of elementary school
The day you met your best high school friend
The first time you glimpsed your significant other
Your first date with your significant other
Your first job
The first time you ended up in the hospital
The birth of your first child
Your first attempt at your favorite hobby
Your first trip to the dentist
The day you had an idea for a business you could start
What happened the day you left home for the first time
The day you learned to read
first day of school
Do you have any great memories of the first day of school? There’s a genesis story in the making…

Here’s a fun Genesis Story told by Cay Roberts and her husband, Kirk about the beginning of their family. These stories were recorded using the Zoom videoconferencing app, so the audio and video quality are not as clear as they would be if we had been filming in person.

Still, the story is a precious one, and it was a lot of fun to get two different perspectives of the same story and then juxtapose the two versions as a single Genesis Story Legacy Video:

Genesis Stories tend to be stories you tell over and over, but maybe you have a great Genesis Story you have never shared. You probably already have a couple of Genesis Stories you are already good at telling. Start with one of those.

Just turn on a voice recording app on your smartphone, or set your phone on a tripod and record a video. It’s also just fine to sit down with a paper and pencil and start writing down your memory of a new beginning. Try it! Once you have done this much, it will be easier to keep going. And once you finish, you can move on to Lesson 3: Remembering With Photos.

*I am indebted to Rhonda Lauritzen at Evalogue.life who taught me the magic of a Genesis Story. Rhonda teaches professional oral history interviewing skills.

You can sit in on my very first Zoom class  by watching the video below. This class was held in March 2024 with a few friends who are working together to write and publish Personal Histories for ourselves and our family members. We talk about Genesis Stories, and you’ll hear some of the stories we recorded for our own histories.

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