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More Than a Memory: Why Your Story Matters This Memorial Day

May 21 / Dr. Janice R. Love

Every year on Memorial Day, we pause to honor those who gave their lives in service to our country. We see flags at half-staff. We hear solemn tributes. And maybe we take a moment of silence to remember someone who’s no longer with us — a father, a grandfather, a cousin, a friend who wore the uniform with courage and pride.

But if we’re honest, this day isn’t just about the fallen. It’s about the legacy they leave behind.

It’s about the stories that shaped us — and the ones we carry forward. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we remember. About the photos tucked in dusty albums. The tales told at cookouts and funerals. The lessons passed down in prayers and proverbs. And I wonder…

 

What happens to those memories when the storyteller is gone?


The Legacy We're Losing

I want to talk to you — especially those of us who are the matriarchs, patriarchs, and mentors, the ministers and memory-keepers — about something urgent. We are living in a time when people are scrolling past their own history. When we’re so busy surviving, we don’t take time to write down how we survived. When wisdom is walking around in people’s heads, never to be passed on because they “don’t have time” or “don’t know how to write.”

 

That’s a tragedy all its own.

 

Your lived experience is not ordinary. It is sacred. It is instructive. And it deserves to be documented. Not only for you — but for the people who will one day wish they could ask you just one more question.


Write It While You're Living

This Memorial Day, I want to challenge the way we think about legacy. Yes, it’s about remembering the heroes who have gone before us. But it’s also about becoming stewards of our own history — while we’re still here to tell it. Do you have a story you’ve been meaning to share? Maybe it’s about your faith walk. Maybe it’s about building a business from scratch.


Maybe it’s about losing someone and learning how to live again. You don’t have to write a 300-page novel. You just need to start. Start small. Start with purpose. Start with the desire to make sure your story — your wisdom, your voice, your legacy — lives on beyond you.


What's Stopping You?

Let’s talk about the thing that keeps most people stuck: fear.

💭 “I’m not a real writer.”
💭 “I don’t know where to begin.”
💭 “What if it’s not good enough?”
💭 “What if no one wants to read it?”

 

I hear this all the time from brilliant, life-tested people who absolutely have something worth sharing. And I always say: you don’t need to be a writer. You need to be a witness. You don’t need fancy words. You need honest ones. You don’t need perfect punctuation. You need purpose.

 

That’s why I created the Quickstart Ebook Creation Course — to help you get the story out of your head and into the hands of someone who needs it. In just 15 days. No overwhelm. No complicated tech. No publishing nightmares. Just your story, structured and supported — start to finish.

 

This Memorial Day, Don’t Just Remember — Record.

Who are the people you remember today? What lessons did they teach you? What parts of their stories shaped who you’ve become? Now here’s the question that hits home:

Have you written down the lessons you’ve learned for the next generation?

 

Let’s change that. Let’s turn memories into movement. Let’s write to heal, to teach, and to pass it on.

Stay tuned for something special coming in June to help you start writing the story  someone else will be grateful you told. Because legacy isn’t just about what we leave behind.
It’s about what we write forward.

 

With purpose,

Dr. Janice R. Love
Pearls Perfected Institute
📧 info@janicerlove.com | 🌐 pearlsperfectedinstitute.com
🎙 Host of Asking for a Sister Friend | 📘 Creator of Black Men Write Memoirs Too

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