For at least the past 10 years, numerous friends and acquaintances on social media have said to me, "Your life is crazy! You should write a book!" At one point when I was particularly frustrated with well-meaning friends trying to tell me how to live my life, the title, "Shut Up and Let Me Live!"TM was proposed. We will see how things unfold. This is a work in progress!

Currently I am working through a 52-week course on how to write the story of one's life that provides various writing prompts to help one get the ball rolling. In the past when I have attempted to write autobiographically, some obstacles I faced were:

• Getting bogged down with minutiae and sharing every little detail of my story. I tend to be a perfectionist, and after all, I had to get the details right!
• Oversharing. Enough said. I don't want to overshare here.
• An overarching fear that no one will be interested in what I have to say.

That last point is a biggie. Sure, I can be witty and entertaining in short posts on social media, but some parts of my life story have been serious, even tragic. Besides, I'm no one famous. Why would someone take a sustained interest in reading my personal memoir?

I suppose I will never know unless I try.

Over the next 52 weeks I will do my best to make you laugh a lot, maybe cry a little, but most importantly, to just be me. This is my life. It's been a hell of a ride so far, but it is so infinitely worth living!