Save the Story

September 24, 2020

In my senior year of college, I dated a lovely journalism major named Patrick. During the getting-to-know-you phase, I was telling him about some hard times during my earlier college years, and said that I hoped that someday I would have forgotten all of the painful details.

"Oh, no..." he replied. "No, don't forget all of that, Deb. You've got to save the story."

I was taken aback. "Save it for what?" I was worried for a minute that he might be planning to write it up in the Daily Pennsylvanian.

"I don't know," he said. "But it's a great story. It's your story. You have to save it. You never know when it will come in handy."

And suddenly, in that one flash, a 21-year-old college kid flipped the way I looked at life's trials. I guess I had thought of tough times as something that, if possible, should only be glanced at in the rearview mirror as you make a hasty getaway. But what Patrick was saying was that any story, good or bad, could have continuing value, could actually come in handy, if we save it, own it, and preserve it for the future.

This experience not only changed the way I looked at past hardships, but helped me get through some difficult stuff right there in the moment, too. "This is going to be such a story," I'd say to myself during tough times like knee surgery... 21-hour labor... a cold, rainy night in a nylon tent in the Adirondack Mountains... "I'm going to make the most of this story for the rest of my life." It made the endurance feel almost like an adventure.

I've heard many people say how much they're looking forward to New Year's Eve, to kissing 2020 goodbye forever, to relegating it to a dwindling image in the rearview mirror. Heck, I've said it, too. But as Patrick would say, whatever it's been, whatever it still is, COVID is still an important story. It's our story. And the lessons we're learning now about fortitude, creativity, and connection will come in handy forever.