Why this story is important
When you record your own memories of historical events — big or small — you become a primary source. Your firsthand account adds texture, emotion, and detail that official records often miss. Because historians and researchers value personal testimony as a complement to archival material. Facts alone—dates, places, outcomes—are necessary but not sufficient. Your emotional responses, doubts, surprises, and small details (sounds, smells, conversations) bring history alive for future readers. Over time, many of those subtle elements fade unless recorded.
By placing your life within the frame of historical events, you show how the larger currents of your age (war, social change, technological shifts, political upheavals) intersected with your personal path. It helps future generations see how you experienced “what was happening” while living through it. Your descendants, students, or future readers may one day wonder: What was it like when this or that happened? Your story gives them a window. It’s a legacy: not just a record, but a conversation with those who come after.
Preparation checklist
- Gather your thoughts and materials. Review your journals and notes that might help you remember details.
- Browse your photo albums to stimulate memories and choose the photos you might want to use in the story.
- Decide who you’ll share the finished story with. Just yourself? Family? Friends? Public post? Thinking about your audience in advance will help guide what memories and details to include and which ones to leave out.
How to use the Times of My Life App to capture your story:
A) Virtual Biographer Interview
- Open the app > search Witness to History.
- Tap “Virtual biographer” to start guided questions.*
- Speak or type answers; the app drafts your story.
- Review, edit, or tap rewrite to craft a different version.
B) Write It Yourself (in the App)
- Open the app > search Witness to History.
- Tap “Write myself”. Paste in notes; upload docs or PDFs.
- Polish the draft. Ask the VB to edit it or rewrite it in a different style.
- Write in the first person or third person. Narrate the story in your voice.
*The Virtual Biographer has instant access to similar stories written and shared by millions of other people. It knows what questions to ask and in what order. It can help you relive events, thoughts and feelings. It can help illuminate the essence of your experience and then craft a story that is uniquely yours. If a question doesn’t seem relevant to your experience, just skip it. Answer at least five questions. Tap “Next” and tap “Additional Details” to speak or type from memory.
Add media, save and publish as a printed piece, audiocast, and/or video
Insert photos and video clips wherever you want them to appear in the story narrative. Add voice narration and background music if you want to create an audiocast or video, in addition to a printed piece.
Share and revise as desired
After the story is written by you or your virtual biographer, you can “share” it through he app with friends and loved ones. Their feedback can provide valuable perspective and help you improve your story. After you get their feedback you can go back and edit the story as desired — or ask the Virtual Biographer to rewrite it with the feedback!
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Write the Story Yourself: Suggested Outline
📰 1. Introduction & Hook
- Begin with the historical event: What happened? (e.g., 9/11, a major protest, a natural disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the moon landing on TV, etc.)
- One line that places the reader in the moment: “I’ll never forget where I was when …”
📍 2. Setting the Scene
- Where were you when it happened?
- Who were you with?
- What were you doing just before the news or event unfolded?
- What was the atmosphere around you (confusion, excitement, fear, disbelief)?
👁 3. First Reactions & Experience
- How did you first learn about the event (TV, radio, someone telling you, being physically there)?
- What did you see, hear, or feel at that exact moment?
- Describe your immediate emotional response (shock, fear, awe, hope).
🔀 4. The Event as It Unfolded
- What happened over the next hours or days as you lived through it?
- Did you witness it directly or through media?
- How did people around you respond — family, friends, community, strangers?
- Were there images, sounds, or phrases that have stayed with you ever since?
🧭 5. Impact on Your Life
- Did this event change your life in any way (big or small)?
- Did it shift your worldview, values, or personal choices?
- Did it affect your community, your country, or your sense of identity?
🌍 6. Wider Historical Meaning
- How do you see the event now, with the perspective of time?
- What do you believe was its significance for the world?
- Did your personal memory differ from how history books or media later described it?
✨ 7. Legacy & Reflection
- What do you want future generations to know about this event — from someone who lived it?
- What lesson, insight, or caution do you take from it?
- Closing thought: “When I look back, being a witness to this moment taught me …”
✅ Tips for Writing in the App
- Use sensory detail to bring your memory alive (what you saw, heard, felt).
- Include both outer events (the news, what happened) and inner events (what you thought, feared, or hoped).
- Don’t worry if your memory is personal or partial — that’s the value. Histories record facts; your story records experience.
- Consider attaching media if you have it (photos, clippings, keepsakes).
Get the App
Best Witness to History Quote
““History is instructive. What it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper… Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place.”
— Howard Zinn, American historian