Aging and My Story
Title
Aging and My Story
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"It is happening. I feel it."
Date
2014
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Identifier
AGING_AND_MY_STORY
Text
AGING AND MY STORY
It is happening. I feel it. Slowly, it is creeping up on me. I am getting older. I think about writing, and my thoughts turn to aging. I thought I had gotten it out of my system some time ago when I wrote that we are outliving our bodies. I identified the various phenomena—hearing, vision, strength loss, forgetfulness, balance and mobility problems, increasing tiredness. Everything takes longer to do. Ideas come more slowly. I am not Philip Roth announcing that I will be writing no more novels. I am Jacob Schlitt who has been writing his story in the hope of pulling al the pieces together and turning it into a book, his memoir. And I cannot figure out the next steps. I have hard copies; I have stuff I have written spread all over my computer: in documents, on the desktop, in places I don’t know how to get to.
How can I order them? Originally, they were organized chronologically. Then, I thought about arranging them topically. Then I decided to devote the first part to my mother, tell her story, and lead into mine. Since most of what I have written has been for my memoir writing class, and they tended to be a couple of pages, more or less self-contained, how do I link them? Technically, do I work from the hard copy. Do I transfer everything to a CD or flash drive? I have no idea. Can I get help from the Apple store?
I have been reading Gary Shteingart’s “Little Failure.” It is a memoir. I have read many memoirs. It is clear that they do not have to describe everything. I have written almost every detail of my life. The time has come to pick and choose. To separate the wheat from the chaff. The interesting and the unique from the dull and commonplace. I would like to tell my story in a way that will be readable and that will hold the reader’s attention. Sure, each of us has his own story to tell, but frequently it may begin to sound like a lot of others.
Summer 2014
I went to the Apple Store and think I learned how to organize my pieces. You put them in folders and give names to the folders. At the moment, I think I will have one folder called “My Mother’s Story.” The next folder will be The 1930s, then The 1940s, etc. until we get to The 21st Century.
12-3-14
It is happening. I feel it. Slowly, it is creeping up on me. I am getting older. I think about writing, and my thoughts turn to aging. I thought I had gotten it out of my system some time ago when I wrote that we are outliving our bodies. I identified the various phenomena—hearing, vision, strength loss, forgetfulness, balance and mobility problems, increasing tiredness. Everything takes longer to do. Ideas come more slowly. I am not Philip Roth announcing that I will be writing no more novels. I am Jacob Schlitt who has been writing his story in the hope of pulling al the pieces together and turning it into a book, his memoir. And I cannot figure out the next steps. I have hard copies; I have stuff I have written spread all over my computer: in documents, on the desktop, in places I don’t know how to get to.
How can I order them? Originally, they were organized chronologically. Then, I thought about arranging them topically. Then I decided to devote the first part to my mother, tell her story, and lead into mine. Since most of what I have written has been for my memoir writing class, and they tended to be a couple of pages, more or less self-contained, how do I link them? Technically, do I work from the hard copy. Do I transfer everything to a CD or flash drive? I have no idea. Can I get help from the Apple store?
I have been reading Gary Shteingart’s “Little Failure.” It is a memoir. I have read many memoirs. It is clear that they do not have to describe everything. I have written almost every detail of my life. The time has come to pick and choose. To separate the wheat from the chaff. The interesting and the unique from the dull and commonplace. I would like to tell my story in a way that will be readable and that will hold the reader’s attention. Sure, each of us has his own story to tell, but frequently it may begin to sound like a lot of others.
Summer 2014
I went to the Apple Store and think I learned how to organize my pieces. You put them in folders and give names to the folders. At the moment, I think I will have one folder called “My Mother’s Story.” The next folder will be The 1930s, then The 1940s, etc. until we get to The 21st Century.
12-3-14
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Aging and My Story,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 25, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/251.