write something for This American Life

but I don’t know what MY story is. I don’t know what defines me. This has been bothering me a lot, lately. Is it a story that describes my relationship with my mom? Something that’s purely personal that reveals something about who I am? Something about what I want for the future? Something funny or something sad? An anecdote or a live-changing event? I’m not sure what’s really important and what’s cliche. What I remember just because it’s something one would remember, or something I remember because it means something. Something I believe in or something… that I see in human life?

Is it important that a story mean something to be a good story? Why do I care so much that a story I tell be something that’s part of me? Why can’t it just be one story that I happen to tell?

how to be funny about sad things. I think the funniest people are the ones who can be funny about things that are not inherently funny. I can be very funny and witty in conversation and one-on-one, but my writing is always more… about discovery than about being funny. I can write amusing or ironic or nostalgic but not funny.

I’ve been doing some creative writing lately, just for practice, and getting friend to give me some criticism. I haven’t yet figured out what subjects really suit me, but I will.