New Cause: Family and Personal History

I'm cleaning my room.

I leave that as a single line simply because it is a big day. I picked up my room before I left, but I certainly didn't clean it. And I've only added to everything now that I've been back in Utah for a couple of weeks. As I am cleaning, I stumbled upon my grandpa's memorial DVD from his funeral in July. It's a slideshow of pictures from the war, his wedding to my grandma and then of the family. It was well-put together and fun to see and only furthered my convictions on family and personal history.

You're wondering why the connection? Some of the pictures on the slideshow I've never seen. Some of the facial expressions in those pictures of my grandpa are ones I've never seen. I'd always imagined my grandpa as a product of his life: harsh and a lot of work. Born just after WWI, he lived through the Depression, served in WWII and then came back to life on a farm where hard labor was imperative and money was scarce. The pictures showed another side of him. He looked so happy when he was married to my grandmother. He had a playful side. And a tender side. And as I watch these pictures flash before me, I realize that I didn't know my grandfather very well at all. I wish I did. I wish I knew more of what it was like to be raised on a farm, what were his parents like, what did he think of grandma when he first met her?

It comes back to all of the questions that we should have asked before he died - and now we can't. I don't pretend to think that my life is going to amount to anything real spectacular. No one is going to ever want to write a biography about me. But, I do wonder if some 60 years from now, my granddaughter is going to wonder what my life what like. What were my relationships with my siblings? How did I survive not having a job for all those months? Why did it take me so long to graduate? Lucky for her - I have journals. And this blog. They aren't really detailed, and they aren't anything really interesting. But they're there. So if my little granddaughter, or great-granddaughter ever needs to do a report about someone born in 1985, someone who grew up during the turn of the second century...etc, she's going to have that information available.

I know I can't persuade my parents to sit down and write down everything they remember about growing up and what their parents were like when they were children. Exactly how did they know they were meant to be with each other? When did they gain their testimonies? How did they get along with their siblings and exactly how did they end up stuck in a house for 20 years that they were supposed to be out of in...what? Five years? What are the things that went on when I was growing up, that as a child I would have never picked up on?

But that's what the scriptures teach us. It is why the Church is such an advocate of journals and records. Family history is important. Whether you think it or not - your personal history is important.

So go out there. Get yourself a journal, and start writing.