A Mosaic of Memories

 “Who would ever be interested in an autobiography of a nobody from Ukraine settled in Louisville, KY?”
This was the first question I asked when my dear husband, the man who believes in me more than I believe in myself, suggested that I write a book with my life stories.

For real.
I am not a celebrity, a best-selling author (one can dream), or anyone of any significance to be paid this much attention to. I also suffer from impostor syndrome, so there is that going for me.

But realistically, who the hell do I think I am?

I am a firm believer that everyone has a story to tell. This story may be sad or funny, long or short, and it can tell about anything from a light-hearted encounter to a deeply disturbing reality. When I grew up, my people used to say, “Life is scarier than fiction.” What we meant by this is that some things happen to people that even renowned authors and storytellers are unable to come up with: it just would not cross their minds.

I also believe that any story worthy to be told - and they all are - is worthy to be written down or typed. Human memory is complicated, and the stories, if we rely on purely verbal retelling without maintaining some type of record, over time have a tendency to get altered and become unrecognizable compared to the original. This used to be the problem before learning to read and write was more commonly practiced and before we had video and audio recording capabilities. In this day and age, we have no excuse.

If there is a story, it must be recorded.

And if the story is told and recorded, then it is definitely worthy of being seen by the rest of the world. No two stories are alike, and even with several participants in the same encounter, it will be retold differently by each (anyone working with eyewitnesses will confirm that, no?).

I gave it a lot of thought and reflection before jumping into publishing my stories. Writing them down was the easy part, it is the “who needs that crap” that was hard.

I am very slowly approaching 50 and may not be in a position to write a full-blown autobiography to collect dust on the shelves among others. But I lived for some time, and by this age, I have a story or a hundred to tell in bits and pieces, letting the reader peek into my life in small portions that I am willing to share with a wide audience.