If you could write the story of your life in only ten chapters, how would you write it?

From start to finish, sequentially, and only the good or bad parts whilst leaving out the rest? Would you choose to include the mundane details because they are part of who you are?

Would it be a romance or a tragedy? Would your readers feel good reading them or be inspired by your story?

Do you want to be an example for others to follow or lesson to be learned? Would it sound like a how-to guide e.g successful, good parenting, excellent boss, best leader or friend?

Would you instead, much like me, focus only on key memories which could be a mix of both good and bad as long as they explain why you are the way you are today and the best/worst version of yourself?

The exhibition of Nam June Paik’s work specifically the Sistine chapel reminds me that life could in fact be a series of moments instead of linear, sequentially placement of days, seconds, time etc. I like to think of the story of my life this way—a collection of files in which one would find allegories. They could be significant, life-changing, key-defining moments and normally they are but not necessarily so.

In my view, they don’t have to be snippets of an autobiography nor a curriculum vitae.

They don’t have to be list of adventurous things you’ve done, places you have visited, favourite foods or top regrets of things you wish you hadn’t done or did.

They could be mere fleeting moments that mean something to you even though they would count for nothing to someone else such as an oddly-shaped seashell you picked up whilst on your solo travels to Bali surrounded by couples in love and you remark for the first time, how wonderful it is that you never feel lonely.

They could also be events connected by a single thread whose content you feel is most important, likely values such as forgiveness, patience, steadfastness, generosity and mercy

but that would mean that content of the ten chapters change depending on which threads or values you think counts the most at different points in time making your chapters dynamic and living, just like you.

I want to write them as objectives I wanted to achieve —not necessarily big and commonly-accepted goals like career, choice of marriage partner or university—but objectives that I wanted to realise so badly but didn’t because life took me on a different path and as a result, I am better for it.

Can you think of moments like that? I can say that most, if not all of them, made you better in some way, if you were really honest and determined to find that nugget of truth.

Will you then be already satisfied with the way things are now knowing what you know? especially if you know now that the future will only get better.