Twelve frames. One life.
One question per frame, in the order the frames are always written: T H e B I G S P E A R s. You don't need to know the framework first; the symbol beside each letter is the only key you need. Answer in a sentence or a page. The questions do the widening.
- You choose the story. Nothing here requires a painful one.
- You may pass on any question and come back, or never.
- No diagnosing, of yourself or anyone else.
- We listen for strengths. So should you, when you read your own answers.
- This is education and reflection. It is not counseling or medical care, and it makes no promises about how you will feel.
- If a question opens something bigger than a page can hold, talk to someone you trust or a professional. In the U.S., call or text 988 any time.
What three events changed the direction of your life?
T is for Timeline. The symbol is a line of moments with an arrow: what came before, what came after.Who has told your story besides you?
H is for Historiography, the study of how stories get written. The symbol is a page being written: someone held the pen.What was happening in the world when your important decisions were made?
e is for era, kept lowercase on purpose. The symbol is an hourglass: the times you lived in, running while you lived.Who taught you something you still carry?
B is for Biography. The symbol is a portrait: one person, seen up close.What did you learn to do because circumstances required it?
I is for Innovations. The symbol is a lightbulb: something that did not exist until someone had to make it.How have the places you have lived shaped you?
G is for Geography. The symbol is a globe: where things happened, and why where mattered.Which communities gave you belonging, and which did not?
S is for Society. The symbol is a group of people: who was in, who was out, who stood together.When did someone else have power over your choices, and when did you gain more say?
P is for Politics, never Power. The symbol is a building with columns: the institutions that decide, and who has a say in them.What have work, money, scarcity or opportunity taught you?
E is for Economics. The symbol is a balance scale: work, money, what things cost and what they weigh.What music, food, images, stories or traditions feel like part of you?
A is for Arts. The symbol is a painter's palette: what people make, sing, cook and keep.Which beliefs have guided your choices?
R is for Reason. The symbol is a head in profile, thinking: beliefs, and how we decide what is true.What evidence remains: photos, documents, people, objects, records, Scripture, stories?
s is for sources, lowercase, and always last. The symbol is a magnifying glass over a document: the evidence, examined.Build it on your phone
- Open Notes and make one note called “My Autoethnography.” Paste the twelve questions in, or type the twelve frame letters as headings.
- Answer one a day, or all at once. If writing is hard, open Voice Memos, say your answer, and paste the transcription into the note. Your own voice is a source.
- For each frame, pick one photo in Photos that belongs to that answer. A place, a person, a document, a plate of food. Add it to the note under that heading.
- When the twelve are done, share the note as a PDF, or open it in Pages or Keynote if you want a book or slides. Save it where your family could find it.
Build it in Google Slides, with Gemini's help
- Make a copy of the Slides template (twelve slides, one per frame, in order). It lives in your Google Drive, not ours.
- Write your twelve answers anywhere: a Google Doc, Notes, paper.
- If your Google plan includes Gemini inside Slides, open Gemini in the side panel, paste the prompt below with your answers, and let it draft the slides. If it doesn't, paste the same prompt into the free Gemini app (or any assistant) and copy the result into the template, one slide at a time.
- Add one photo per slide from your own library. For music, add a link to the song rather than the file, and keep the deck private; a recording you didn't make isn't yours to publish.
- Read it out loud once, to yourself or to someone at the table. That is the moment it becomes an autoethnography.
Here are twelve questions and my answers. Make one slide per question, in exactly this order, and title each slide with the frame name shown: T Timeline · H Historiography · e era · B Biography · I Innovations · G Geography · S Society · P Politics · E Economics · A Arts · R Reason · s sources. On each slide: my answer in my own words (do not embellish or add facts), one short line that connects my answer to the wider context of family, place, era, community or belief, and a placeholder for one photo. Add a final slide titled “A more complete version of my story” that draws only on what I wrote. Keep my language; do not make it sound like an advertisement. [paste your twelve answers here]
What you'll have
Twelve slides or twelve pages in your own words, in the canonical order of the frames, with your own photos, saved in your own account. That is a personal autoethnography: not the whole story of your life, but the evidence of what shaped it, and a more complete account than the one you were handed. Keep it. Add to it. Read it again in a year and see which answers changed.