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25 Life Events That Can Cause Dramatic Change in Your Life:

How did what happened change you?

Carolyn V. Hamilton
2 min readFeb 13, 2022
A girl walking alone carrying a small suitcase on a straight dirt road leading through an infinity landscape.
Photo courtesy of Josealbafotos

It’s always been a given in fiction writing that the main character must experience some form of change by the end of the book.

So what does this have to do with the memoir you’re writing?

Personal experience leads to lessons learned.

Here are 25 life events that can cause dramatic change in your life:

1. Moving to a new city

2. Death of one or both parents

3. Travel to a foreign country

4. Abuse, physical and/or emotional

5. Falling in love (and getting married)

6. A near-death experience

7. Catastrophic illness

8. Divorce

9. Having children

10. Fire

11. Major surgery

12. Graduating from college or university

13. Getting your “dream job”

14. Getting fired

15. Death of a child

16. Rape

17. War

18. Imprisonment

19. Living abroad

20. Death of your spouse

21. Bankruptcy

22. A car accident

23. Being elected to public office

24. Addiction (and overcoming it)

25. Retirement

I’m sure you’ll agree that you know a lot more now than you did when your journey began.

In some — maybe several — ways that knowledge has changed you.

Let’s also look at your body — the most consistent part of your life.

Dr. Jonas Frisen, a stem cell biologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found that your body’s cells largely replace themselves every 7 to 10 years. Old cells mostly die and are replaced by new ones. A head-to-toe rejuvenation can take up to a decade or so.

So every decade

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Carolyn V. Hamilton
Carolyn V. Hamilton

Written by Carolyn V. Hamilton

Author, artist & adventuress with 3 decades in the real world of “Mad Men". She helps authors write and market their memoirs of life journeys and challenges.

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