life in chapter headings

Now it's all or nothing. - Simple Minds, Alive and Kicking

I've been reading a lot. It's a 'Yes!' to A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers. Words and how they express how you feel and how you never have enough, regardless of the language you try to express yourself in. Words and what they mean, how to interpret them, how they feel when you say them, how they make other people feel when you say them.

Regardless. The other book I've been reading is Zoe Heller's Everything You Know. Meh. Not so much. This one is hard work - I can't identify with the main character, whereas it was simple to identify with Z in the other book. I find the protagonist annoying and his manner irritating. Unlike Jack Nicholson, who I just watched in the Bucket List, Heller's lead character has no charisma to carry him through.

One concept from the book sticks though and that's at the end when he's contemplating life and how it plays out and he considers how people precis their lives, how they assign crib notes to sections of life and then use those crib notes until they believe what they've written about themselves.

I got to thinking, as you do, about life and what my crib notes have been. The things I say to people when I meet them and they want a recap of my life, or like recently at work, when I needed a magazine introduction - how I condense myself into one short paragraph. It was a really interesting exercise. The one for work came up with something like :

'Ashleigh has worked in the educational and governmental sectors in Southern Africa and Europe and brings a wide background of experience to her position as xx at xxx'

Obviously nothing like the truth which is:

'Random jobs until bored speechless at university position after which she had an 8 year break before getting really lucky and re-entering corporate life.'

Which one is the real version? When I'm 60 am I going to believe the magazine version? Hope so. 

And the rest of it? This is how I could condense my life so far:

0 - 10 : Grew up in a warzone in a sanctioned country.

10 - 20 : Boarding school. Teen pregnancy. Failed marriage.

20 - 25 : New marriage. New baby. New country. New house.

25 - 30 : Another new country. Another new baby. Another new house.

30 - 35 : Kids go to school. Lose lots of weight. Find out what I want is not what I wanted before.

So where are the details? Filtered into static.

What are your crib notes?