Editor’s Note: To make creative writing a little easier for my dad (though no less expressive), I wrote the opening phrases of this piece (As a boy, etc.) and he filled in the blanks. You could call it a thought experiment in succinctly describing the experience of a life in 100 words or less– a “micro-autobiography”. The name “Dad Libs” is a play on the popular word game Mad Libs, where players fill in empty spaces in a template story with their own words. You can find the template below- try it yourself if you’d like. Here is what we came up with.
-Max
Template
As a (boy/girl), I was…
As a teenager, I was…
In my twenties, I was…
In my thirties, I was…
(And so on, however long your story may be.)
Dad Libs
Michael Gollin
August 2017
As a boy, I was silly and adventurous.
As a teenager, I was dissolute, thrill-seeking, and intellectual with low emotional intelligence.
In my twenties, I was diligent, motivated by science and law.
In my thirties, I was building emotional awareness, a family, and a career.
In my forties, I was expanding expertise and keeping up with a growing family.
My fifties were five years of fitness and spiritual awakening, then five years of illness and confronting mortality.
My sixties is the peaceful decade.
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