Save the Story · Chapter 5 of 10

The later years

what the days look like now — what's quieter, what's still loud. Scan a square or tap Record — the paperback stays on the table; the voice stays in the app.

01 · start here
What's quieter in your life now that used to make a lot of noise?
Record this one
02
What's the story about yourself you find yourself telling more than any other?
Record this one
03
What's an ordinary day in your life like now?
Record this one
04
What's improved with age, despite everything you were told to fear?
Record this one
05
What's worsened, honestly — and how have you arranged your life around it?
Record this one
06
Tell me about a friendship that's still standing after thirty, forty, fifty years.
Record this one
07
What do you do with mornings, now?
Record this one
08
Tell me about a place you've come back to many times across your life.
Record this one
09
What does retirement (or stepping back, or shifting gear) actually feel like, from the inside?
Record this one
10
If you've lost a partner — or you've lived alone for a long stretch — what does the shape of a day on your own feel like now?
Record this one
11
What do you do with the people who are no longer here?
Record this one
12
Tell me about a piece of music that means more to you now than it did when you first heard it.
Record this one
13
What's the thing you're most curious about, still?
Record this one
14
Has your relationship with your body settled into something different in the later years?
Record this one
15
Tell me about something a grandchild — yours or someone else's — has taught you.
Record this one
16
Is there a regret you've come to peace with?
Record this one
17
Is there a regret you haven't made peace with — and don't have to today?
Record this one
18
What's the best meal you've had in the last year?
Record this one
19
Is there a place you'd still like to see, even if you'll need help getting there?
Record this one
20
Have you developed a habit in the last decade that surprises you?
Record this one
21
Tell me about a younger person who's been good to you in your later years.
Record this one
22
What's a possession you'd like to make sure ends up with a particular person?
Record this one
23
Is there an apology you'd still like to make, or receive?
Record this one
24
Tell me about a moment of unexpected joy in the last year.
Record this one
25
Is there a phase of your life you'd happily live again — knowing what you know now?
Record this one
26
What's a habit, attitude, or worry you're glad to have outgrown?
Record this one
27
What does death look like to you now, compared with what it looked like when you were forty?
Record this one
28
Is there a question that, twenty years ago, you thought you'd have figured out by now — and you haven't?
Record this one