While checking out the forums at Big Picture Classes, I came across a post about how to get more “you” in your pages.  It is something worth thinking about.  It made me think about how there’s an unwritten rule that you need to do pages all about yourself.  Or at the very least, it’s a topic of discussion that seems to have some pressure.  It’s another thing we “worry” our minds with.  Maybe it’s my Show-Me State birth, but I get wary when anyone tells me there’s something I should do in my hobby- prove to me why. You see a “should” is a “have to” and there aren’t any “have to’s” in scrapbooking no matter what anyone, myself included, tells you. 

But, I want to be in my scrapbooks so it bears thinking about.  Sure there are things that inspire me to want to do pages that are solely about me.  And there are often valid reasons behind why people want to do so- often they wish they knew little facts about people they knew or wish they’d known.  They want to leave that same information about themselves for future generations.  And, I think it’s the desire to leave something behind that adds to the pressure to do pages “All About Me”. . . . we lose sight of the fact that we scrapbook because we enjoy it and start to think about things beyond our control- after all someone else would have to read our pages down the road.

There was an lightbulb blinding me though as I thought about the post.  I paused and thought about the pages that I’ve classified as “All About Me”, I couldn’t help but think that IT IS All About Me! Each page I scrapbook has a piece of me and tells you more about me- regardless of what its about.  Perhaps “All About Me” is often thought about as “Just About Me”. 

I choose the stories that I want to tell- that says something about me. I tell the stories- Me, from my own perspective!  I use my words, my mannerisms come through on the pages.  What’s important to me, my values, the things I do, my relationships, etc- it’s all there in those pages.

So, I’m shining all the way through- each page tells about me no matter what the topic may be- each page is literally about me. 

So, I start with the story I’m inspired to tell- I don’t fret about making a page about me.  Sometimes the story I’m inspired to tell actually is really very clearly about me. . . like this story about my love for banana cake (or that I make my favorite cake following a bout to eat healthy because the bananas ripen so fast). . . . but none the less they tell about me.

You can read the journaling/story for this one here.

But the majority of my pages aren’t solely about me.  They are about things and people that make me who I am today disquised as ”simple little stories” that we don’t think about being about ourselves.

It says something about me that I wanted to tell this story and feature three photos of my nephew doing the same thing at different ages.  I can be sentimental and I appreciate seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.  Yet this layout isn’t “All About Me”.

This story is all about how I forgot to unplug the truck one morning.  Thought it’s not about me, I’m shining all the way through it.  It tells about my life- and it tells that I like to capture little things. There are facts about me nestled in this story as well- I drove a truck, I worked, turkey season was a part of my life, I missed my husband when he was gone- and that I’m forgetful and sometimes overly anxious. . . . and that I had a husband who loved me and appreciated those facts. 

Journaling reads: “It was the week before turkey season began. “Cody went out the deer lease on a Thursday evening to go scout for turkey with David Whitehouse. I stayed home. Before he left, Cody asked if I wanted him to plug in the truck. Since I knew I’d forget to do it later on, I said yes. I don’t sleep well when Cody’s gone and Thursday night was no exception. But, I had to go work, so I got up and got ready. On the way to work, I turned on the heater. . that’s when it hit me. . . “Cody said he was going to plug the truck in.” My thoughts raced. I don’t remember seeing it plugged in. Do I turn around? What if it messed up the plug on the truck? or the garage or outlet? Surely I would have noticed the cord. When I got to work, the first thing I did was to check the plug on the truck. It was all tucked away. . “good I thought, he must have forgotten.” I wondered and worried about it though all morning long. I didn’t want to call Cody for feat they’d be on some turkeys when I did. So, I waited. He finally called after 10:0 sometime. I asked if he’d forgotten to plug in the truck. He said no, he remembered. I came clean about my omission earlier that morning. He went home to check on things before he came to work. He later said he started to get mad but could tell I was really worried. As he thought about it more, it was funny to him. I was so relieved when he called and said things were fine at the house. Note to Self: Don’t Forget to Unplug the Truck.”

This layout, written about my brother’s bladder on a road trip, actually is quite telling about me and how I relate to my brother.

Journaling Reads: To my baby brother,We went out to eat today. You set yourself up for a reminder of one of your finest moments when you said you’d had too much tea. I couldn’t help it. I was reminded of the call you had to make to Tracy. It’s funny to look back at these pictures and see how young you look. It doesn’t really seem like we’ve aged that much since 2004 but I guess we have. Of course, these pics are from several days after the infamous incident. We all got such a laugh out of you that night we drove 17 hours straight to Tampa. It was hilarious when you said you had to go potty and asked us to call Tracy and them in the other vehicle. Oh no, we weren’t going to call because you couldn’t hold your bladder. Of course, we made you call and had quite a laugh at your expense. We’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that moment for many years now. Love, Your Sister- who will be reminding you of this incident for many years to come.

You’ll even find some of those things you might see on an All About Me page found elsewhere in my layouts.  I can think of at least three right of the top of my head that mention TV shows I’ve loved.  Here’s an example- I think it tells you more than if I’d done a layout about my love for NCIS. . . .

Journaling Reads: The mystery became our case when we came around the corner and did not see any deer feeder. It took some serious sleuthing to find it. Our only clues- feeder legs and some mechanism parts. The hogs left a trail of parts leading towards the road and we used our best N.C.I.S. skills to find the feeder barrel which was dragged almost to the road. I took crime scene photos as we went. Gibbs trained us well.

Here’s the thing, though, my pages tell my life from my perspective.  I whole hardly believe it’s the only story I can tell. . . . my story.  Even if it’s about something with my nephew like the layout above or something that my brother did- I can only tell my perspective about it. 

Let’s think of this another way.  When you read a book, there may be a few lines about what a character looks like other traits about them (i.e. what they like, what they may do, etc.).  But you don’t know the character through those lines, you know them through the whole story- how they think, how they react, how they handle other people, etc.  I guess that’s what I’m trying to say about me being represented in my pages. 

That story you read in a book may be fiction- but in our case, if we stick to what we know, what we see, what we feel- we stick to telling the stories we choose to tell from our hearts, then this story is even better becuase it’s not fiction.  That story will tell more about you than any page about your love for _____ (insert your favorite dessert) could ever tell. 

Even if I never did a page about how I like banana cake but rather always scrapbooked stories involving other people in my life. . . as long as I tell that story from my perspective- as long as I’m true to the one creating the pages- I’m going to be respresented in my pages- You’re going to know who I am.

So how do I incorporate pages about me into my albums?  I simply scrapbook the story that’s calling me when I decide to do a layout.  I feel confident that in telling those stories, I’m going to be well included.