Editor's note

I recently spent some time with a group of friends and colleagues, and had the opportunity to engage them in storytelling. I used the following prompt, and encourage you to try it. "Close your eyes and visualize someone younger than you. It can be a person real or imagined, but be clear about his or her age. Once you have a person in mind, open your eyes and write the following statement on your index card, 'When I was your age...' and then write a few sentences to finish the story." Thirteen of the stories that came out of this exercise are below. Every one of them (both ordinary and momentous) is beautiful and poignant in its own right. I will add more examples over the coming week and thank everyone who contributed for allowing me to share their stories. Update March 15, 2017: Posted sixteen more of these precious stories! (copyright Jennifer Rickards, threebyfive.org)