A few stories go a long way

One of the many reasons that I enjoy meeting new people is that my old stories are new to them. That one about pretending to be Swiss while trekking in the Himalayas, or about the nice little old taxi driver in Singapore who turned out to be a pimp – they’ve never heard them before.

It seems to me that we only get a certain number of stories in our lives. And not just the fun ones that we tell over coffee or wine, but the big ones are limited too, even more so. The long arcs that we use to understand and describe our lives, or that others use to do the same – we only get a couple of those.

I heard a great quote from my old friend Apurva today – “Everything you will ever be, you are now becoming.” You only get so many stories. Write them well.