“I don’t have much of a story.”

It is the most common thing that veterans say to me when I tell them I want to interview them about their lives. And I always tell them the truth, “It’s the people who tell me that, who always have the interesting stories.”

I’ve interviewed hundreds of veterans at VA hospitals over the last seven years. I’ve laughed with them. Cried with them. Sat with them in silence. But mostly I’ve just listened to them. And they have taught me a lot. I never served in the military, but each of these interviews is a lesson for me, another step forward on a long journey. I know much more about the military and the veteran experience than I did seven years ago, but I still feel like I know nothing.

You are probably wondering, “How does this guy still have a job, if he knows nothing?” It’s because I have a job where knowing nothing is an asset, where being curious is the job, where the best way to spend an hour is to talk and connect and share that hour with someone I’ve never met.

I’m a writer and it is my job to interview veterans and write up their life stories. Once they have edited the story and approved it, I print out copies of the story for them to share with family and friends. I also put a copy of the story in their VA medical chart so their nurses and doctors can learn more about them. It’s a program called My Life, My Story and it’s available now at over 50 VA hospitals around the country.

If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that everybody has a story to tell, a story that is worth telling, a story that can teach us something about how to live our own lives.

In the words [slightly updated] of Mark Twain: “No narrative that tells the details of a person’s life in their own words can be uninteresting.” Our stories don’t have to be heroic, or tragic, or earth-shattering to be memorable. All they need to be is human, to reveal those common threads of hope, disappointment, loss and joy that hold us together.

I encourage you to share your story.

The magazine you are holding in your hands (or reading on a screen) is a great way to do it. Veterans’ Voices is a forum for you, for veterans who have stories, poems, and truths to tell. Use it.

Writing isn’t easy. It is scary to put it down in words, to put it out there, to believe that someone will listen. But they will. So, start writing. You have something to say. Don’t wait until tomorrow.

In the words of a one veteran who was interviewed for the My Life, My Story project: “Going through this process of writing my life story has helped relieve some of the pain (physical and emotional) but more importantly just when I thought I hadn’t made an impact on anyone’s life, after sharing my story with family/friends, I realize that I did.”