1. Adding Deeper Meaning to Your Personal Narrative

2. Kinds of Deeper Meaning
Questions (“Is being unhappy a sign that you are doing something wrong with your life? Do people deserve their unhappiness?”)
Themes (“Everyone has something they dislike about themselves that they refuse to admit to. Mary’s was that she grew up poor; Scott’s was that he was gay; mine was that I was depressed.”)
Lessons (“Nothing brings people together like finding someone else to hate.”)
Symbols/Metaphors (“The highway in Beaumont as a symbol of racial division; the pollution as a metaphor for what I was feeling inside; Mary was like a magpie – she liked shiny and cheap things”)

3. Themes
Questions
Lessons
Symbols/Metaphors