Being Alive Makes the Story
Greetings. My name is John Hitchcock and I never pictured myself as an author or teacher.
I am married with two adult “kids,” both over fifty. I retired after fifty-six years teaching physics and chemistry, giving me more time for writing.
My first experience with writing actually started with Doc. Jo in a freshman writing class in which she could empty a red pen while grading one page of whatever we tried to create. About twenty years later, my first actually published writing was done for a now defunct computer magazine.
Since that time my writing has transitioned from just an enjoyable hobby to a “really enjoyable” activity.
Growing Up Is Important
My students frequently asked, “What’s the most important thing to do in having a successful life?”
My response usually is, “Pay Attention!” Take notice of the world; the little things, the larger issues, your environment, other people, their ideas, parental problems and good things, peoples’ worldviews. They are all important.
I didn’t realized it as I was growing up, but my parents were totally influential in my life
as an adult. First of all, they allowed me a great amount of independence. I could go fishing alone, had firearms at a young age, go camping in the High Peaks of the Adirondacks, and mostly, infused me with the ability to think critically and have the courage to speak truth in any situation.
I thought of as “endangering the welfare of a child.” In culture today they would be facing jail time, I’m sure.
During those years, my dream was to be a Forest Ranger. Now, many years later, many experiences I had have become characters or main plots in a novel I’m playing with in my mind.
Every Life is a Developing Story
We were poor, but only in money. The rest of our lives were filled with adventure and spontaneous intentionality. For instance, my father and I were practicing our golf chip shots about sixty yards away from the house. As we finished, my father looked down at the house, observed the upstairs hall window, and said, “Watch this. I bet I can put it right through the hall window.”
Thinking he was just joking, i replied, “Bet you can’t.”
Well, he could, and he did. The golf ball soared through the glass and into the hallway. The next sound we heard was my mother yelling, “Howard, what are you doing?” Dad replied with, “What a shot! Right where I aimed.”
The result was a story told laughingly for years, and I got a good lesson in how to install a window pane.
Small Towns Are Filled With Stories
Small towns are filled with stories.Roxy’s store was spooky to a kid, but we couldn’t resist entering for the penny candy. The brook behind the buildings seemed remote because of the dense brush. Bill and Beaty’s house had a hill where we could ski, even on wet grass.
How small was it? When I was a freshman in college a friend asked where I was from. “Up in Bakers Mills,” I responded. 
“Where’s that, how big is it?” his questions continued.
“Well, it’s up in the Adirondack Mountains. I don’t know how big. Let me count them.” I replied. “59.” I answered.
We actually lived a mile and a half up Edwards Hill Road, and we as kid would walk to town to play with our friends. Once they paved the dirt road we were thrilled because we could ride bikes to town.
Your Story is Important
While out shopping on a rather cold day, I happened to stop into a restaurant for some coffee. I quickly noticed a man sitting in a booth with computer and a sign. On the sign was written “What’s YOUR Story?”
He was actively engaged with another man who was telling his story. As they chatted I sensed there was a continuing dialogue occurring.
I had purposely chosen a seat close enough so that I could be next in line, not to tell my story but to find out what he was really doing.
Turns out he was a preacher in a local church preaching a series on witnessing and had felt if he asked his parishioners to do something, he should be willing to do so himself. And this was his way of accomplishing that.
As he did his own witnessing what he discovered was that every person who sat and shared their story it was an amazing adventure.
What’s YOUR story?
Who knows? Perhaps if you were to share it in the form of a book, you might find the results were unusually helpful, maybe even life-saving in it’s purpose.