What If…They Tell Your Story

The Hamilton film came out this weekend.🌟 If you’re a super-fan like I am, you’ve been waiting for this. If you’re wondering why this is such a big deal, have you been living under a rock for the past few years? 😂You’ve heard references to 🌟Hamilton since it debuted on Broadway in 2015, whether you knew what those references were or not. Lin-Manuel Miranda is the mastermind who wrote his way into the mainstream through this masterpiece. It’s streaming on Disney+ and worth every penny for the service, as well as every minute of your time to watch. You’ve just got to trust me on this one.💯

If you’re a history buff, this is for you.✅ If you love musical theatre, this might be your dream show.✅ If you’re like me and you love both of those things, it’s like the stars aligned!✅Who knew that Alexander Hamilton’s life could captivate an audience? Miranda did- that’s who! And, I am thankful for his foresight!💖

The lyrics are the stuff of 🔮magic. Have you ever heard of an “Easter egg?” I’m not talking about the actual eggs that kids hunt on Easter morning with 🍬candy inside. I’m referring to Easter eggs that are hidden messages or visuals throughout 🎥movies or plays or other mediums. Hamilton is full of them! One listen to the soundtrack is not enough to catch even half of them! You have to know your history and different genres of music to figure out most. Miranda is a genius, I’m telling you. Genius.😍

The finale song of Act 2 is called “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.” It reflects on the lives of the characters in 🌟Hamilton and their effects on history. 

Consider these lines for a moment:

“Let me tell you what I wish I’d known

When I was young and dreamed of glory

You have no control, who lives, who dies, who tells your story?”

Think about that. You have no control who tells your story.😳 It’s probably true on some levels. We don’t know who tells our stories right now, do we? Who goes home with our stories after encountering us at work? 📚School? In a store? People who talk behind our backs, so to speak, are really telling our stories- like it or not.😬

Every single time we encounter another person, we’re 📝writing another chapter. Maybe you never thought of it in that way, but someone is telling your story. What kinds of things do they say? Are the stories 💖positive? Could some be ☺embarrassing? Are the tales of generosity and humility? Are they the stuff of fiction, or are truths being shared? What stories do you hope are told?😇

I believe that we can have some control over our stories.💯 We can write our own narratives by the way we live our lives, and that is a lovely🎁 gift. We need to see it as that- a gift that we can open and reopen anytime. So what if you didn’t like the beginning! Who cares if the story you’re living right now doesn’t feel right. You can unwrap that 🎁gift, you know. You can change the next chapters. What do you want to highlight in your story? 😀Positivity? 💖Love? Acceptance? Loyalty? Dependability?📚 Knowledge? 💞Forgiveness?

When my dad died a few years ago, so many people wanted to tell his story. Almost every one of them involved 😂laughter. Some included laughter with my dad. Others spoke of laughter AT him- if you knew my dad, you know that he’d be perfectly fine with that. He was quick with a 😀warm smile and raucous laughter. He found humor in the world as much as he recognized it in himself. I think he’d love that 😂laughter is a big part of his story.

With a nod to another 🌟Hamilton quote, I hope that I have done enough when my ⏳time is up. I’d like to believe that my story illustrates 💛kindness and 💜compassion and 💙gratefulness. Maybe people will tell of my weird sense of humor or my 😱fear of heights. Perhaps it’ll include the times that I laughed too loudly or the fact that I couldn’t do 🎠rides that spin. What about my tendency to interrupt 🙊conversations? Or my forgetfulness? Above everything else, I want my legacy to be full of 💖love. I hope I’m doing enough to write that story.

What if…they tell your story? What do you want them to say? It’s never too late to 📝write a beautiful legacy for yourself. Make sure you have done enough.💖