my autobiography

I'm just about ready to turn in my portfolio and request my final exam for an independent study class I have been taking from BYU. I have to pass this class to be formally accepted into their Bachelor of General Studies program that I can complete at home. For one assignment I had to write a short autobiography. I wrote it in interview form, which was probably one of the least creative ways, but I was feeling pretty rusty with the whole paper writing process. Anyway, here's my autobiography.

Interviewer: “What are some of your roles?”
Susan: “The first role I fill each day is that of mother. I say it is the first because my two girls are usually the ones to wake me in the morning. It is also the most important role, and I am extremely grateful that I can stay at home each day and spend most of my time fulfilling it. I have also played the part of wife to my husband for six and a half years. I am also a student – a student of BYU, a student of the scriptures, a student of good books, and very often a student of my children. Currently in church, I am using my musical talent to fulfill my role as the Primary singing time leader in our ward, and I also fill in on the organ whenever needed.”
Interviewer: “Tell of a defining moment in your life.”
Susan: “One defining event in my life occurred as my oldest brother served his mission when I was about twelve years old. He would write in his letters about the things he was learning, and I could see how much his testimony was growing. For the first time I had the desire to read the Book of Mormon myself. I read it all that summer and finished it a little after school started again. I gained a love for the scriptures that summer that has continued throughout my life and has often been a source of strength and a place of refuge.
“You only asked for one moment, but I’ll share another shaping moment in my life that occurred when I was nineteen. I was asked to go on a blind date where I met the man who would later become my husband. That night I found the greatest friend I have ever had. My life was forever changed in finding my eternal companion because I now have someone else’s interests to put before my own. I had never learned to serve or love in such a selfless way before meeting him.”
Interviewer: “If you could be anyone you wanted to be and could do anything you wanted to do for one day, who and what would that be? Why?”
Susan: “In the morning I would want to be the organist in the temple. How I would love to just sit there for hours playing hymns in the House of the Lord. I truly cannot think of anything that would bring me closer to heaven. Then that evening, I would like to be the Sugar Plum Princess in the ballet The Nutcracker. I never had dance lessons and am quite uncoordinated, so I would love to experience how it feels to excel in creating such a beautiful art form. It would also be really fun to see my girls’ faces when they saw that their mother was a princess.”
Interviewer: “Describe a difficult time in your life. How did you overcome it, and what have you learned from it?”
Susan: “The most shocking and dramatic difficulty I have had in my life was when at age sixteen my parents, my grandfather, and my grandmother were killed in two car accidents within a six-month period of time. I moved from rural North Carolina to Orem, Utah to live with some close family friends. I remember a few times when I felt so overwhelmed with loneliness that I did not have the energy to do anything but pray. I remember very vividly how my tears and sobs would just stop in the middle of my prayer, and my pleas would turn into expressions of gratitude for the love I felt. Since my father never went to the temple, one year after the accident, my brothers, sisters, and I went to the Provo temple to complete his work and be sealed to our parents. I felt so much joy as we all embraced in the sealing room after the ordinances were completed that I didn’t think my body could contain a single ounce more of happiness. Since then, I cannot remember ever feeling that overwhelming loneliness that had plagued me before. I have learned that families are truly eternal, the priesthood authority is the Lord’s power, and I am never really alone. Alma’s discourse on how faith grows into knowledge makes much more sense to me now. I always had a testimony of those things, but I now know through experience that they are true.”