While reading “Life’s Stories” by Julie Beck’s, I found out that I actually relate to a lot of points that she made. One that stood out to me was, “In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning”(Beck 1). This really interested me because I don’t really know what narrative psychology is, but she says how we tell our stories is more important that helps create our life stories. It helped me understand how I’m built as a person, by how I perceive it and the memories behind the stories.
Julie states, “As college literature class discussion sections taught me, you can see anything as a metaphor if you try hard enough”(Beck 9). I found this ironic because we just finished talking about metaphors. Metaphors are so important, so Julie talking about this topic is amazing. This article isn’t about metaphors at all, but she points out how they’re still relevant and important. She discussed the importance of them and I agree because in my essay I wrote how they’re so powerful and helpful toward people’s mental healths.
Another quote in the article that I relate to so much and appreciate what this guy said was, “A life story is written in chalk, not ink, and it can be changed. “You’re both the narrator and the main character of your story,” Adler says. “That can sometimes be a revelation—‘Oh, I’m not just living out this story, I am actually in charge of this story”(Beck 10). This quote actually speaks out to me because I like being in charge of my own life. Ever since I was little, I hated being told what to do. I like doing my own thing and hate when people have to have an opinion on something I DO. Anyone is in charge of their own lives and get to choose to make it better or worse. YOU have the power to change your future and direction in life. If someone is not in a good state in life, that person can change their story with “chalk” and can easily make those changes in their life. I 100% agree with this quote and glad how the article ended with that because it has a big meaning and it’s so important in this world.
I love your first quote, It is so interesting and real because people’s stories are so special. I also noticed the same thing about how Beck integrated metaphors into her writing. I tied that together with a text to text comparison between her and Khullar. And I 100% agree with you in your last point that we can make our lives go the direction we want. It all depends on how hard you try and what you want to accomplish. I love how you put that whole paragraph, nicely done.