As we all grow old, we create an individual story unique to our memories and adventures. Now add on the individual story of our significant other, which weaves in and out of our own individual story. Now add on the individual stories of our parents, our siblings, our aunts and uncles, our nieces and nephews, our cousins, our own kids, our friends, and our neighbors. These simple stories begin to weave into a larger than life story that can be difficult to keep straight; and that is all that our lives become, a string of stories.

My grandfather passed away in the winter of 2012. It was a difficult time as he was the head of the family, and a death always feels too soon. Following his death, I began to spend more time with my grandmother. I realized that time is precious, and that his memories deserved to be preserved. For the next three years after that, I spent each summer at my grandmother's side, marking the back of old photos and taking in all the stories that came with that photo. I learned more about my grandfather in those three years after his death than the sixteen years I had known him.

My grandmother passed away in the summer of 2015. It was even more difficult than I imagined because I had gotten so close to her since my grandfather passed. All those summers of stories, cowboy/Indian movies, and mini coke cans blossomed a beautiful friendship between the two of us. I felt that I wasn't just losing my best friend, I felt like I was losing the stories and history that she had accumulated in her 83 years of life.

This past year has been spent visiting their house and packing up the history. The house was just put on the market a couple weeks ago, as it took us over a year to go through all of their belongings and distribute them throughout the family. I, of course, claimed all of the family history material, as it was something that I became passionate about. My grandma passed that trait onto me, the love of history and the knowledge that family is the most important thing in your life. Over my Thanksgiving break, I have had the time to begin the journey of going through and organizing the family memories once and for all. The boxes are plenty, the dust thickly coated, and I am prepared for the long trek ahead of me. In just a few days I have only scratched the surface of the memories that some date back to the late 1800s. It is an honor that I am able to be the one that gets to uncover and display our unique family story, no matter how weaved and tangled it may be.

Some of the amazing pieces of history I have been able to uncover are:

1. As far back as my father can remember, they have always celebrated my grandfather's birthday on April 4th. According to his birth certificate, he was born on April 3rd.

2. My great grandmother and grandfather were twenty years apart from one another, a social norm in the early 1900s.

3. Marriages were highly celebrated, hence the ten or so different articles in the newspaper when my grandparents said, "I do."

4. The original Disney World tickets that my dad used when they went to Disney World the opening year.

5. All the letters and school work that my dad, uncle, sisters, cousin, and myself have made for our grandparents. They kept every piece we had ever given them, and it was just another reminder of the unconditional love they had for us.

And these are just a few of the millions of pieces that make me who I am today. History is an amazing tool to help us move toward the future, so what is your story?