This year, we have listened to so many beautiful stories from our Box writers.
There have been stories of dragons and hedgehogs and babysitting adventures. We’ve heard the mystery of the wicked witch and the continuing saga of Petunia.
While these stories have been well worth celebrating, we believe the most important story of the year has yet to be written. That story is the story each of us tell about 2020. It can be a story of disappointments and heartache or a story of triumph and growth. It all depends how we write the story. Both sides of the story may be equally true, but the way we tell it gives us trajectory to build on for the new year.
As adults, we certainly don’t have a lot experience telling stories like the one we lived in 2020, but it’s important for us to get ahead of the narrative anyway. Model for your children a growth mindset by writing your 20 successes of 2020. On my list, I included big things like, “Pivoted Write On! to a year round program.” But I also put small things like, “Found a new walk route to the park.” No success is too small.
Then, write another 20 successes you experienced as a family. In our family, we took turns cooking dinner this year. We also played Monopoly together for the first time since–ever.
Finally, keep the momentum going by helping your children write their own 20 successes. Let them overlap with your successes and your family successes. It’s perfect if they own those successes as their own. This is what you want to have happen. Soon, you’ll be living in a story of one of the greatest years in recent memory.
Writing fictional stories is a glorious way to spend time, but writing a life story, in a way that celebrates what went right, is vital to living a life of hope and continued growth. We wish you and your family all of this and more as we step into 2021. Write On!
