Summing up your life in an "elevator speech"

[gwendally]

I've been playing around a bit with an assignment that is really difficult. When people talk about you years after you died, what would you like them to say? You get two, maybe three sentences to pass down through the years. Are you quick to laugh? Did you love animals? What has been your life's work or your passion or your dominant skill? Your

Comments

[coercedbynutmeg]

Ha, do you want to hear what someone else would say about you if they were to speak candidly? If you were in a bathroom stall and they walked in and started talking about you? Begin from there.

[gwendally]

I think it's supposed to be a bit of a PR exercise. I remember when I wrote a reference letter for Kaylee. I said she was an excellent second shift worker, not that she called in sick in mornings. I said she was a good A/P Clerk, not that she consistently couldn't do the basic duties of a full-charge bookkeeper. Everything I said was true, but it was an incomplete picture.

Crafting our legacy is a tricky thing, but it's completely reasonable to pass down the GOOD parts. Give our descendants SOMETHING other than straight biographical data.

[elenbarathi]

I totally can't do this for myself, because the question "how would I want to be remembered?" segues straight into the question of how I have to live in order to be remembered that way, and then into the pointier question of whether I am living that way. For example, I've seen a tombstone where a man had written of his wife that "Her eyes never dwelt on him save with affection", and I once heard it said (of someone I hadn't known) that "He never had a bad word to say about anyone." I'd want to be remembered like that, but I'm not going to be, even by the people who love me best.

[gwendally]

I would refer you to my answer above, but also mention that it seems okay to me if it's a bit aspirational.

I obviously want to avoid straight-up wishful thinking, but the truth is that I'm not actually a waste of protoplasm, and you aren't, either. So what makes us marvelous?

[daphnep]

I'd like people to say that I was infinitely curious about the world, and never stopped learning. I'd also like them to say that I was compassionate, and kind...but that's the "aspirational" side. More likely they will say "she was stubborn as a mule and only nice as long as you stayed on her good side."

Sigh. I'm still learning.

[gansje]

This is incredibly difficult, mainly because I was Very Well Trained never to say a complimentary word about myself, be humble, and all of that lovely stuff we learned back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. I just cannot eulogize myself!