Homework For Life.

I’m a boring, safe person.

I’ve lived a largely by-the-books existence.

I went to school, finished my undergraduate degree in 4 years, did a graduate degree, started work after graduating, and have stayed at the same job for the past nine years.

My communication style is a self-identified, blunt, no-beating-around-the-bush style. I talk about facts, drop all the flourishing, and don’t have a lot of emotionality in my communication.

But I think I want to be more.

I get the sense that I choose to blunt because I don’t want to be too attached or too emotional, that I choose to be apathetic because I don’t want to be let down or be demanding, that I choose to defer, deflect, and disregard because I can control myself, my wants and my feelings towards things but I cannot control others.

And I’m starting to wonder if I’ve lost those sides of me. That I’ve become an observer in my life. That autopilot apathy has taken control, and I’ll blink and one day be simply a cog in some abstract machine because my logical mind has decided on the safest path to a retired, pension-funded life.

These may all feel like scattered, unrelated thoughts vomited on a page but scrolling through TikTok and seeing Gen-Z’s starting businesses on a whim, unafraid of failure, consequences and parental disappointments and the ludicrous life that social media funding has afforded them, it makes me wonder if I’m living a safe life and am left unfulfilled in some way.

I try to think back on my library of experiences, and sure, I’ve got some.

• I lived on a yacht for a week while island hopping in Croatia after a music festival.

• I packed my bags solo and flew halfway across the country to pursue a career on my own, away from family and friends.

• I dislocated my shoulder the morning of a friend’s wedding at a Parkour gym and had another friend pop it back into place so I could attend the wedding as a groomsmen.

But when they come out of my mouth, they are simply facts. Simple, factual statements.

They don’t hook you in.

They don’t keep you guessing.

They aren’t captivating.

And I want to experience being a good storyteller because I want to be a good communicator and help others be good communicators.

Matthew Dicks, an author, storyteller, public speaker, business owner and consultant, talks about Homework For Life, a strategy to see the world in these episodic story-worthy moments.

Homework For Life is a means to document and catalogue moments in your life.

Moments that resonate universally.

Moments that exist in the mundane.

Moments that encapsulate one’s life of worth, of import, of meaning.

Moments that redefine the contents of my life as moments of autonomy and a lived existence rather than passive recipient.

And so, I’m hoping to keep track of those moments for myself: the mundane, the spectacular and everything in-between, with the hope that I resonate better.

And hopefully, that translates into my writing as well as a way to examine my writing for the sake of storytelling, to communicate a heartfelt moment, a position change on a topic or a first discovery.

If nothing else, I’ll at least end up feeling better than others.