Literature & Language Essay: Personal Stories

In class we listened to "Stranger in the Night," a personal story told originally on The Moth podcast.
https://www(dot)thisamericanlife(dot)org/361/fear-of-sleep#play

The genre of personal stories spans the range from comedy to college entrance essays and grant applications. Your assignment is to write a personal story, or to include a couple if appropriate, to show your audience (your peers and me) something notable about yourself. Note how the rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, timing, etc.) can determine the material and the way you present it.
The essay will need to develop and craft your account of the story or stories. You’ll need to introduce your account. Your essay will also need to address what the story tells or says about you—who you are, your family, your friends—your identity. In other words, the introduction and conclusion should make some meaning of your story or stories. (Note Birbiglia’s closing comments about denial, both in terms of its usefulness for being a comic and how it can be dangerous regarding a medical condition.) Can you think about and explain how your story says something about you, who you are, your identity, that applies to others? Is there a universal or “take away” observation or lesson you can extrapolate from reflecting on your story as Birbiglia does? *A really ambitious paper could analyze your process for choosing and crafting your story and seek to incorporate shifting points of view (what others think about you). In other words, it could feature a metacognitive dimension--but this is not required.
*Remember to give readers the context or setting—where, when, how old you were, etc.
Suggested opener: "It was a time when..." (try it out!)
Length 2-3 pages (double-spaced, minimum, longer is ok)
You might want to use dialogue in your paper if so here are some guidelines:
http://www(dot)nwp(dot)org/cs/public/print/resource/360 (Links to an external site.)