Collection 5
Becoming Myself
Something in me strives to connect with the past. Not my past, but another’s past. An ancestral past. And so, after all, it is my past.
—Karen Cooper
If someone asked “Who are you?” how would you answer? Maybe you’d give your name, age, where you live, a description of your family. That’s hardly the whole story, though. So much goes into making up “who you are”—the complete, total story of your life till now.
The three writers in this collection have looked at their lives and found they had stories to tell. From a hairy experience in Boston to a Japanese American internment camp in the desert to a fever hospital in Ireland—these writers have looked at their experiences and tried to get in touch with “who they were.” As you read these autobiographies (literally, “self-life-writings”), see what they say to you about that interesting process of becoming yourself.
WRITING FOCUS: Autobiographical Incident
Writer’s Notebook
In your Writer’s Notebook, freewrite about the first experience that comes to your mind when you think: What has helped make me the person I am right now? Your writing is yours to share with others or to keep for your eyes alone.