Your rebellious past? 💃🏽

Kia ora!

Sometimes readers send me stories that make me smile, and today I have one from Cathy Monnington. When she finishes writing it, her life story promises to be very entertaining.

Before I share her words, I think it’s a great idea to share some insight into what you did for Christmas, in your story. Where were you? What year was it? Who were you with? What sort of gifts did you exchange? What did you eat? What did you do? What did Christmas feel like for you? Do you have any photos? 🎄

Here are Cathy’s 100 words (err, ish):

Christmas was looming; preparations were well in hand at home, in the shops and at school, where we practised for the annual school carol service.

Who thought of it? Who rewrote the words? How did we pull it off?

Mr Drake, standing behind the lectern on the school stage announced in assembly one morning, “We will all now sing While shepherds watched their flocks by night.”

Miss Allen attacked the piano with great gusto and we sang; “While shepherds washed their socks by night all seated on the ground, the Angel of the Lord came down and said that red pair’s mine!”

Miss Allen, mouth agape, fingers frozen above the piano keys, stared steely eyed at the entire school assembly. Mr Drake held up his hand to prevent any further blasphemy of the much-loved carol and hymn.

Assembly was closed. First and Second years were dismissed. The few Fifth years were dismissed as they were all in 5G and considered to be a bit thick. Third and Fourth years were instructed to stay.

Were you a rebel like Cathy in your youth? Judging from some of the stories I’m helping people with, quite a few of you were. Ha ha! Please don’t hold back on the truth about those times, your children need to know, if only to make them feel better about their own behaviour!

I’m going to take a break from this newsletter for a few weeks until the New Year. I’ve loved reading your responses to this weekly email through the year. Thanks to some of you readers, I have a nice list of books to write, edit or produce in 2025, not to mention the amazing people working through my memoir course.

Will 2025 be the year you finish your story? If you’d like support and coaching to write your memoir, life story or family history next, check out the ways I can work with you below.

Wishing you a satisfying end to 2024.

Charlotte x