by Larry Alexander | Tutor With Larry | tutorwithlarry.com
My mother, Doris Thomas, passed away when I was in my forties. She was a woman of strength and love for her six children, the Chicago Bulls, and our numerous family get-togethers. When I would relate a story that she found lacking logic, she would often say, “You’re just stupid!” One of her last positions was in the South Suburbs of Chicago at Rich Central High School, where should loved to watch the budding Rich Central basketball star, Kendall Gill, who called Mom one of his “favorite fans.”
But I never videotaped my mother, her voice or any of the special moments that we shared.
I never sat her down and said: “Tell me about the day everything changed for you. Tell me what you were most afraid of. Tell me what you want me to remember.”
This is one of the reasons I believe that every person should create a life video — not someday, but now, while the story is still yours to tell. Not because you are old. Not because anything is wrong. But because the people who love you deserve to hear your voice long after you are gone, and because the act of telling your story changes how you see it.
This article will show you what a life video is, why it matters more than most people realize, and exactly how to create one — even if you have never made a video in your life.
What Is a Life Video?
A life video is not a slideshow of vacation photos set to music. It is not a highlight reel. It is something deeper: a recorded narrative of your life, told in your own voice, that captures who you are, what you have lived through, and what you want the people you love to know about you.
Think of it as a living document — part memoir, part message, part gift. It can include photographs, home videos, and cherished objects. It can include the voices of people who know you best. But at its heart, it is your story, narrated by you, for everyone who will come after you.
There is no set length and no required format. A life video can be five minutes or fifty. It can be polished or raw. What matters is that it is honest and that it is yours.
What Is at Stake If You Don’t
Here is a truth that is easy to avoid thinking about: the stories that live only inside you will disappear with you. The details — the specific names, the year, the feeling in the room, the thing your father said that you have never forgotten — exist nowhere else. When we lose an elder without capturing their story, we lose an entire world.
And it is not just death we lose stories to. It is time. Memories that feel vivid today become fuzzy at the edges in ten years, and in twenty years some of them are simply gone. The version of yourself that exists right now — with your current perspective, your hard-won wisdom, your particular way of seeing the world — will never exist again in quite this form.
Every person who dies carries an entire library with them. A life video is your chance to donate yours.
I am not saying this to be morbid. I am saying it because urgency is clarity. Waiting is not a neutral choice. It is a choice to leave your story untold.
Five Reasons a Life Video Changes Everything
1. Preserving your legacy. A life video lets you pass down your values, your beliefs, and the lessons you paid dearly to learn. Think about what you wish you knew at twenty that you know now. Your children and grandchildren could have that wisdom. They could hear it in your voice, on a quiet Tuesday night, long after you are gone.
2. Creating connection across generations. Imagine your grandchild, thirty years from now, pressing play and hearing your voice — not just seeing a photograph, but hearing you laugh, hearing you say what you believed in, hearing you describe the moment your life changed direction. That is what a life video makes possible. It closes the distance between generations that time opens up.
3. Celebrating what you have built. We spend so much time moving forward that we rarely stop to look back at how far we have come. Creating a life video forces you to sit with your own journey — the obstacles you cleared, the people who shaped you, the moments of grace you might have forgotten. It is an act of self-respect.
4. Deepening your relationships now. When you reach out to the people in your life and ask for their memories of you, something remarkable happens: you learn how you have affected them in ways you never knew. The process of making the video becomes its own gift — a set of conversations you might never have had otherwise.
5. Understanding yourself more fully. There is a particular kind of clarity that comes from trying to tell your own story. When you sit down to describe who you are and how you got here, you begin to see patterns you missed while living inside them. A life video is one of the most honest forms of self-reflection available to us.
How to Create Your Life Video: A Step-by-Step Guide
You do not need professional equipment or technical expertise to create a meaningful life video. A smartphone, a quiet room, and a willingness to be honest are all you truly need. Here is how to begin.
1. Gather your materials. Collect photographs, home videos, letters, and any objects that hold deep meaning for you. These are the raw materials of your story. Do not worry about having enough — you have more than you think.
2. Choose your angle. A life video is more powerful when it has a central thread. It could be a theme of resilience, a story of migration and roots, a love letter to family, or a message of faith. Ask yourself: if I could leave one thing behind for the people I love, what would it be?
3. Write your narrative first. Before you record, write what you want to say. You do not need a polished script — notes and bullet points work beautifully. But having your thoughts organized before you sit in front of a camera makes the difference between rambling and resonating. (This is where a writing tutor can help enormously.)
4. Record in segments, not all at once. Break your story into chapters: childhood, family, pivotal moments, lessons learned, message to the future. Record each chapter separately. This makes the process less overwhelming and gives your video natural structure.
5. Invite others to contribute. Ask family members, close friends, or colleagues to record a short message about you. Their voices add warmth and dimension that no solo narrator can fully achieve. You may be surprised by what they say.
6. Edit and arrange your footage. Organize your clips into a narrative arc. Add photos, music, and text to support the story. Free tools like iMovie, CapCut, or even YouTube Studio make basic editing accessible to anyone.
7. Review it with someone you trust. Watch it with a family member or close friend before you finalize it. Their reactions will tell you what is landing and what still needs to be said.
8. Save it in multiple places. Store your finished video on an external hard drive, a cloud service like Google Drive, and ideally with a trusted family member. The goal is permanence.
Five Questions to Get You Started Right Now
If you are not sure where to begin, start here. Sit with these questions and write your answers. They are the seed of your life video.
• What is one moment that completely changed the direction of your life?
• What is the hardest thing you have ever been through — and what did it teach you?
• Who is the person who believed in you when you needed it most?
• What do you want the people you love to know about you that they might not already know?
• What do you hope people say about you when you are no longer in the room?
You do not need to answer all five today. Start with one. Write a paragraph. That paragraph is the first draft of your life video — and once you start, you will find that the words come more freely than you expected.
A Note on Writing Your Narrative
For many people, the hardest part of creating a life video is not the technology. It is finding the words. We carry our stories so close to us that it can be difficult to know where to begin, how much to say, or how to make what we feel land on the page the way it lives inside us.
Writing your narrative before you record is one of the most valuable things you can do. It helps you find the through-line of your story, choose the details that matter most, and say what you mean with clarity and intention. A well-written narration transforms a collection of clips into something that feels complete.
If writing does not come naturally to you, that is exactly what a writing tutor is for. I work with clients on exactly this kind of personal narrative work — helping you find your voice, structure your story, and put into words what you have always known but never quite said. It is some of the most meaningful work I do.
Your Story Will Not Tell Itself
The memories you carry right now — the struggles, the breakthroughs, the ordinary Tuesday that turned into something you have never forgotten — exist in vivid detail today. In ten years, some of that detail will be gone. In twenty, more of it. In a generation, all of it, unless you do something about it now.
A life video is not a morbid project. It is an act of love. It is a decision to say: my story matters, the people I love deserve to hear it, and I am going to give them that gift while I still can.
This weekend, find five photographs from different chapters of your life. Write two sentences about each one: what was happening, and how it felt. That is the first draft of your life video. And I promise you this: once you start, you will not want to stop.
If you want help putting your story into words, I would love to work with you. I offer one-on-one tutoring in personal narrative writing, memoir, and life storytelling. Reach out at tutorwithlarry.com/contact or email me at tutorwithlarry@gmail.com. Your story deserves to be told — and told well.
About the Author
Larry Alexander is a professional English tutor, former college English professor, and lifelong hip-hop enthusiast. He has nine years of teaching experience at Prairie State College and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He offers tutoring in essay writing, personal narrative, business English, grammar, and proofreading.
He believes in the transformative power of hip-hop as literature, as education, and as a vehicle for self-knowledge. Visit tutorwithlarry.com to learn more or book a session.
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