Origin stories

One week ago I posted the story of how I wrote my first song. It was a long, meandering tale, and I felt more than a little self-indulgent writing it. Nobody, I thought, could possibly be interested except for close friends and family.

But what the hell. If you can't be self-indulgent on your own blog every once in a while, where can you? Besides, I love origin stories. Spider-Man battling the Green Goblin is nowhere near as captivating as the series of events and choices that led Peter Parker to don a weird costume and fight crime in the first place.

You don't need to be a tights-clad comic book character to possess an intriguing narrative, either. Let's face it—sometimes you have to be a superhero just to make it through the day.

So now it's your turn. What is your origin story?

If you'd like to play, here are a few guidelines:

1. Post your origin story on your own blog. The idea isn't to write your entire life history ("I was born feet first ..."), but to share some pivotal happening that helped make you who you are. For instance ...
   
   • Embarking for the first time on some creative endeavor, or learning the craft
     
   • Discovering what you wanted to do with your life
     
   • Overcoming some type of challenge or adversity
     
   • Learning to live with some type of adversity (not all are overcomeable)
     
   • Learning an important life lesson that's stood you in good stead
     
   
   All of these are just offhand suggestions. If yours isn't on the list, that's fine!
   
   
2. Post a link to your story in the comments here.
   
   
3. Tag 10 other people who might have a good story to tell, and challenge them to tell it.
   

I'll start. Here are 10 bloggers whose stories I'd like to hear:

Billy and/or Bob, Bottom of the Glass
DeppityBob, Postcards from Scotsylvania
Fireblossom, Shay's Word Garden
Josh Hanagarne, World's Strongest Librarian
Pris, Songs to a Midnight Sky
Priscilla, Heaven in My Foot
Jeff Shattuck, Cerebellum Blues
Laurel, Dreams at Stake
RachelCreative, RachelCreative
Dave Rhodes, The RhodesTer Chronicles

There's no time limit on this, by the way. If circumstances don't allow you to write anything right now, feel free to put something up next week, or six months from now, or whenever. No stress. Just have fun.

I'm listening.