Every journey you go on is like its own book.

Right now, “J” - one of our very own community members - tells me that he could be doing better physically.

Maybe that’s what his upcoming story will be about.

Maybe it’s something else.

The exciting part is in seeing what it’s going to be and the details of how it folds out.

As for his previous story, it’s compelling.

Where he started is very different than where he is today.

He just might not remember all the details at each turning point.

I’m not sure we’ll ever get the full thing.

Such sonnets are harder to recall in retrospect.

Still, “J” tells me: “Sometimes, I look back on where I was, miserable at work due to an awful mentorship, always fighting with my roommate, never talking to friends, being down on myself constantly, and realize things are actually insanely different.”

This version of himself seems alien to the one that I know today.

I understand the vibe, though: I have the experience of knowing that the person I’m introducing myself as today is wildly different than the one I was in the past. They only see the new and improved version, but I know about the shady past that still lurks in the dark alleyways of my mind.

I wonder if this is how “J” feels about himself.

But, there’s a reason why we all have a multitude of stories within us - if we only know where to look and when to accept the adventure.

“I don’t feel amazingly most of the time,” he says.

Again, I wonder if this is what his next story will be about. Or perhaps the one after that.

For now, the way he weathers each moment has changed. “If I get into a fight with my roommate, we talk it out. If I bedrot all weekend, I make sure next weekend is more productive.”

The sun keeps rising.

I ask him about how he got there.

“I feel like I've been stopping and starting my whole life,” he says.

Sometimes I wonder if we’re each meant to have thousands of epiphanies over and over again, and each time we do, it’s its own little story worth telling.

…the struggles that preceded it. The wrong things we chased. The epiphany we had about what we needed. And, the adventure we had striving for it - the dark places we visited, the invisible enemies we fought along the way.

“I guess a good point here is that there wasn't really a day where I said ‘I'm going to fix this,’ and then did. I had positive influences, like your posts and the LARP group, I made positive decisions like starting therapy, and eventually found traction. I can't point to a single event or start; it was more about slowly accumulating helpful things,” “J” says.

While that might disappoint Hollywood, it’s probably the story most of us need to hear: that the real epiphany is knowing that our better life isn’t a dramatic moment, but a series of footholds we find as we make our way up the mountain.

“I have confidence that I didn't before,” he says. “...both that I can do things and can weather the consequences if I try and fail.”

I started out asking “J” for his story because I thought I wanted to know the old story - the one that got him to where he is now.

But as I’m writing this and thinking about things, I’m just as excited to see his next story.

So often, we get caught up in where we are now and how we got there, that we don’t see the adventure that sprawls before us.

“J” sees that those areas where we still struggle don’t have to weigh us down or say something bad about us. “It's not about if you fall; it's about getting back up. More importantly, I've internalized that failure doesn't make me a failure. Mistakes and bad choices happen,” he says.

I’d take it a step further.

I’d say they’re the part that’s going to make your next story captivating.

They’re going to give it flavor and character.

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Next article: “How to Start Your Spellbinding Story.”