Translation: Khalaf Sarhan Al-Qurashi

Several years a I worked with a primary school teacher in her twenties who wanted to write her personal memoirs. During our conversation about some of the distinctive situations in her life that she wanted to include in her future book, a colleague passed by us and happened to overhear part of our conversation. He asked her one of the big questions regarding writing memoirs: "Why on earth do you want to write your personal memoirs when you are still young?"

She answered saying:

"Last year, during my grandmother's funeral, each of us had a story or two about her, and none of them were like the others. We had very few stories about her childhood in Romania, about her job as a waitress on a tourist cruise ship, about her first marriage filled with violence, and also about her working as a nanny for a wealthy man's daughter. This means that there are many chapters of her life missing, and for this reason I cannot bear the idea that my family and children in the future will not know me."

What a valid reason for writing her personal memoirs, which certainly will not cure her of cancer – if she were to be afflicted by it, d forbid – and will not keep her safe from terrorist attacks if she were to be exposed to them. It will not inherit her billions of dollars, but through it she will find value, meaning, and importance for her life experiences and expertise. She believes, and perhaps mentioned, that her story could leave an impact on the lives of others, whether they were members of her family or others. She was absolutely right.

If at any moment you felt a need for clarity and transparency or credibility in this difficult, confusing world, the solution may lie in writing your personal memoirs. When you want to struggle for truth and honesty, and for the sake of history, that writing gives and provides awareness, inspiration, and understanding. Memoirs also give their owner the advantage of closeness to people and grant them healing. Who among us does not need more and more of these things in their life?

For a long time, writing memoirs remained limited to famous people and others residing in retirement homes. But the situation has changed now, thanks to the spread and fame of exciting memoirs written by people of different ages, which has made memoirs – as a style of literature – available and accessible to everyone who wants to share the story of their life with others.

Writing personal memoirs is a noble endeavor in which the author commits himself to methods not required by poetry, fictional narrative, or any type of non-fictional prose.

When writing personal memoirs, you as an author are in front of and in the center of the spotlight while the world watches you, waiting and expecting the question: What kind of person is he who volunteers to put himself under the microscope and subject it to this type of careful scrutiny?

Answer: They are those type of writers who want to create, discover, and clarify something real, honest, and faithful about themselves and their past.

What makes personal memoirs more than exciting and interesting reading material is that people love to read real life stories. Memoirs are not just stories based on true events, but the true events themselves. Therefore, their readers feel that they interact and sympathize more with the risks faced by the writers of personal memoirs and what the matters mentioned within them could lead to.

Writing memoirs in the past was limited to famous people such as actors, athletes, musicians, industrial tycoons, and those working in senior vernment positions, and by the same measure those loved more or hated more by people. But the figures currently presented show that the situation is no longer as it was before. Readers today are more than ever open and ready to read exciting and interesting stories of ordinary people. This means that it does not require you to be famous from the start to begin writing your personal memoirs; all you have to do is write well and be creative and innovative in finding the components: the primary elements that call for and attract the reader's attention when narrating your life story.

When writing your personal memoirs, you possess your entire life, especially when you write them for the first time and you are not forced to be famous. All you have to do is be honest and faithful to your past and generous at the same time.