Review: Storyworth.com

 In this edition I am going to do something a little different.  Instead of writing about our dementia journey, I am going to write about a commercial product.  And let me say from the outset that I am not being compensated in any way for this.  As a matter of fact, they don't even know that I am doing this.  It is just that I feel strongly about what this product is doing and feel compelled to share.

 

My primary hobby for the past two decades has been genealogy.  Understanding my family origins by tracing my ancestors has been fun and rewarding.  I want to understand where they lived and when so that I can understand their migratory decisions and history.  But collecting names, dates, and places misses a lot of family history.  It misses those family stories that are passed down between generations, and it misses what it was like for you to grow up fifty or seventy five years ago... in the first person.  And that is what Storyworth.com is trying to do.  

 

Storyworth facilitates the collection of your life stories and anecdotes of your life and times.  It does this by asking a question, which you then use to write a story.  It sends you one question every week and at the end of a year, it will publish your 52 stories in a hardcover book.  If you don't think that a question is pertinent, you can reject it and get another.  You can select questions in advance and you can even write your own questions.  Here are some examples of the questions that I have been asked:

• What was the neighborhood like where you grew up?
• Did you ever get in trouble in school as a child?
• Which people had the biggest influence in your life?
  
• What were your grandparents like?
• What was your favorite toy as a child?

 Storyworth gives you an opportunity to write stories about your childhood.  It gives you the opportunity to pass on to your kids and grand kids the little things that were important to you as a child.   What is especially interesting about this, to me at least, is that for the past year or so, I have been wondering just what I was like as a kid from my parents perspective?  What problems did I cause them?  What were their greatest concerns about me?  How did I measure up against their expectations?  I wish that I had these thoughts while my dad was still around.  With Storyworth, you can write about these things and leave it  for your kids.

 

Storyworth is not cheap.  A one year subscription is $99.  That includes answering 52 questions and printing them in a book.  You have the opportunity to purchase extra books if you wish.  My youngest daughter gave this to me as a Christmas gift.  And now I view it as a wonderful gift from me.  I may share one or two of my stories in future blog editions.

So if you are looking for a unique way to leave your story behind for your kids, then I would encourage you to look at Storyworth.com