The writing prompts invite postcrossers to write about a different topic on their postcards’ messages every month. These are just suggestions though — if you already know what you want to write about, or the recipient gives you some pointers, that’s great too!
Have you ever thought about what a biography of you would be called? Or what the individual chapters might be called? We got an interesting prompt on the forum from Simi_91 asking about that:
For me, I definitely think that the title of my memoir/autobiography or a biography of me would have to be something to do with books. For some reason I always think about the nursery rhyme, 'The House That Jack Built'… something like 'The Person That Books Built’ seems pretty apt. Books have always been a massive influence on me, after all.
I even wonder if the chapters should be named after specific books. Given that I ultimately ended up doing a degree in Infectious Diseases because of David Quammen’s book Spillover, for example, maybe the title of the chapter that just ended in my life should be 'David Quammen’s Spillover', and end with my graduation. It’d certainly make the point about how important books are to me, and previous chapters would include 'J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings' and (when I was much younger) 'Hazel Edwards’ There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’!
As for the current chapter, well, that probably remains to be seen, really! My friends are taking bets on what I might study next and when, but I might just take a little break and spend lots of time reading everything I can get my hands on. Inspiration might be just another book away…
We’re very curious to hear ideas on what you’d call the current chapter in your own lives! You can comment here if you want to share more widely, and/or use it as a prompt for something to write on your postcards if you’re stumped!
33 comments so far
I’m a fairly new empty-nester who is still trying to figure it out, so the title of this chapter of my life would probably have something to do with the empty nest. 🪹
I started to live with my boyfriend after ten years together, it has been a challenged but always there is something new to learn each other. If some one are similar like me or had happened a chapter recently like me , I am welcome to swap postcards with or letter 🫰
I wouldn't really know where to start to talk about the chapter of my life. It could be organized chaos? or maybe just chaos. Since becoming unemployed in December 2025, I feel like a whirlwind of my life all scattered apart and trying to start over after 10 yrs in the same place. I think if I wanted a new chapter -which it is starting to feel like, I want to be less stressed out than stressed out.
Hello.
The title of the next chapter in my life is: «Five Minutes That Changed Everything».
And here’s a spoiler for it:
An ordinary February day turns into a sudden threat for the protagonist: in the middle of the night, he is woken up by a sharp pain in his chest. An ambulance, a diagnosis of unstable angina, emergency hospitalization and heart surgery — a story about how one day can change a life forever and teach you to appreciate every heartbeat.
I won’t bore you with the full story. I’ll just say that thanks to my wife’s prompt reaction and the quick, coordinated actions of the doctors, I’ll be able to finish this chapter and write the next one.
Transforming jnto someone to be determined...as my only child turns 18 soon, my elderly cat passed recently, and I go through midlife changes as a woman. It's like I don't know who I'm becoming now, but I know I'm changing and so is my stage of life.
Awesome idea! I feel my chapters are changing daily! Today it is K-POP invasion
The loss of a sibling, surgery, and the normal routine of life fell into place like a jigsaw puzzle. But we're alive and we have to live. So I'll call this next stage of life LIFE.
Disconnection. I haven’t been on social media nor with my friends or dad and I genuinely feel disconnected from people, not in a lonely way, like im focused on myself kind of way, I’ve been mostly at my mom’s place which is on the country side and so I feel like the city girl that moves to camp life😭😭 But I like it here
Year of changes, I think. My father died in January in a high age of 101 and now I visit my mother in an old people's home. My mother is feeling okay but my parents lived together at their home until November last year and were married for 72 years. Seeing my mother alone, surrounded by strange people and how she reacts to that... Happily she has found a lady friend there and they talk a lot. My daughter's family has been living in UK but now they decided to try Finland for a while, at least, and are moving to my hometown in the autumn. I'll have my only grandchild near me but the move also makes me a little (or more) ancious because I do not know how everything will go here. We mothers worry first for our children and then as grandmothers for our grandchildren. So lot of big changes...
Today is my official wedding anniversary-49 years with the only man I’ve ever loved. He’s in Greece for the month of April and I’m loving my time alone. So this chapter is titled “ Sometimes you just need a break! Or not missing you too much, Sweetheart.”
Wow, what honest & deep responses.
Such a good question.
As an "old" American woman, I will title this chapter as the "getting used to being disregarded - or set aside" chapter.
Ageism in America is real, & I feel it.
Postcrossing is a gift of connection, regardless of age.
On Death
My mother passed in February and it’s been a rocky road. I have fallen apart as well. Who am I? Will the next chapter be Rebirth or Transformation?
The current chapter in my life is year 14 of cancer. I have been on the battlefield for years. It is very hard on my so many side effects. I seem to find a way to drag through it every day. Maybe I am doing the right thing I won't God is on my side every step of the way/
My partner of 25 years passed away on January 23rd. Since I have muscular dystrophy, it's been a complicated grief I've had to deal with. I've had to sell my house, but the current owner is letting me stay and offering me a very fair rent. I've been really struggling with how to live on what I can make, since I am limited and on Disability. My friends, family, and community have really supported me and come through in a big way, so I am so grateful. There isn't a minute of every day that I don't miss the love of my life, though. It's been the most traumatic and hardest thing in my life to deal with.
"Looking forward to sail with Mickey Mouse", is the tittle for my current chapter in my life. Why?
My husband and I are Disney freaks, love to visit The Parks and sail on one of there boats. On Monday April 27th we're on The Disney Magic Cruise boat and I can't wait.
This is a year of "just say yes and see what happens". It is a wild, and, at times, terrifying feat. In 2026, I joined a hot air balloon crew, befriended an Italian grandmother I met at a thrift shop, I am training for a bike ride from Portland to Seattle, and have begun selling my art in a gallery and at art markets. These and the many other smaller decisions I have chosen to say yes to are turning this into a fulfilling year. Not everything works out the way I would hope but being vulnerable, trying new things, being willing to learn, and pushing myself is turning out to be just what I needed. I call this chapter, "FAFO".
Summer of 2025 was the start of “Active retirement!” This is my next chapter! My wife and I have our health and finances so now it’s time to do our own things from spending more time on our many hobbies, volunteering to camping, and overseas trips! I’m guessing I have less than 10 years on this chapter before age, health and future grand children will slow us down!
Our three children have advanced into there own chapters of life of marriage or careers/dreams!
This theme reminds me of a sentence I read recently:Your 20s are like Season 1 of Friends, and your 30s are Season 1 of Sex and the City.
As a big fan of Friends, this line fills me with so much motivation and hope — it makes me realize there is such a rich, wonderful life unfolding ahead of me.
I would name the current chapter of my life Kiki's Delivery Service: Urban Life. Witch Kiki's Delivery Service is a Studio Ghibli film I loved deeply when I was little. I’ve always dreamed of living and working in a new city, just like the witch Kiki flying on her broomstick. This is my first year working full-time. Whenever I tidy my rented apartment, make breakfast for work, and slowly settle into my new life, I always think of the witch who live alone and happily in a starnge city.
Still searching for a good title :)
If my 20s were about to have fun, then the 30s are to learn the lessons, and the 40s are to pay for the drinks...
Here is the BiG Q: what are my soon-to-be 50s about?
The Softness.
I feel like I'm at the chapter of my life that I was passionately fighting for, for it to even exist. I have the family I dreamed of, I'm surrounded by loving people. I feel like I can breathe. I don't have to be bigger, stronger, or more fierce. I can be soft. I'm safe. I have goals and things I'm striving for...but there's a peaceful joy about life right now. Like watching the sunrise. There's a glow and a hope. Being 50 is breathtaking. I love it.
Often I think I am still waiting to open the book. Do I like reading? Or is it a way of hiding.
When I read the April writing prompt, I was really looking forward to the comments section. I expected to find things like “My chapter is called Happily Ever After, because I just got married,” or “My kids are currently in full chaos mode, so my chapter would be The Big Bang — but I love my family anyway.”
Instead… I got illness, death, existential crisis.
For a moment I almost started to despair, thinking the world is heading straight into the fiery pits, especially because I realized that my own chapter wouldn’t sound very cheerful either — probably something like All Work, No Play.
But then, at the very end of it all, a tiny spark of hope appeared.
People have problems — big, ugly ones. They live through dramas, and the death’s‑head hawkmoth seems to circle around them…
And yet all these people still find a moment in their lives to spend time, energy, and money just to send a small piece of colorful cardboard to a complete stranger somewhere on the other side of the planet. With no reward other than receiving another small piece of colorful cardboard from yet another stranger.
This is what makes us human.
And this is Postcrossing.
THIS is the quality that sets us apart from the animals. 😊
Such interesting, poignant responses to the prompt. I'm 71. I'm lucky to be able to revisit places I've loved when younger. My son has been living on Hawaii Island for the past eight years, so I've also been lucky to know a new place and culture. To be in a place again after forty plus years is educational. There is change of course, but also a bedrock of continuity. That is my current chapter of life. As they used to say in the USA, "keep on truck 'in" (and enjoy the ride as much as you can).
My next chapter is entitled "Widowhood". My husband died suddenly on Easter morning. I wonder if this is too much of a downer. I usually try to just write about the happier things in my life. Maybe I should take a time out. Please tell me what you think.
Carol
"Become who I am"
There has been a lot of change in the last two years in my life. Before I was in a dead-end job close to burnout and I really had to learn that I have to put myself first. Because if I don't take care about myself, nobody else does. So accepting my boundaries (I don't have to be wonder woman), taking time for myself (still too little) and - most important here - start postcrossing.
This chapter should have been "happy forever" since we got married in 2023. However, as we returned from our honeymoon, our life has changed. We shoud focus our family project, instead, we are fighting everyday to find a quiet place to sleep. Our house is vibrating and it makes our head explode! You would think ok, then move out! The problem is that we can hear the humming/vibration in many other places now and we are afraid of buying another house with the same problem. So we live in hotels, we analyse if there is a loud sound or not...and when we come back home, we survive with 2 to 4 hours of sleep. What to do?
We think it might be a sensitivity to heat pumps or 5G masts... we really don't know (and there are suddenly so many heats pumps everywhere in the country. We seem to be the only ones noticing). No friends around, no family that helps or wants to hear about our problem, neighbours who don't care and don't want to turn off their machines. Olé!
Title: unexpected struggle.
Fingers crossed!
"The month in which I finally said no without having to explain why"
(it is supposed to be OK to say 'no' when asked to do something, so why doesn't anyone accept 'no' and say "that is OK" instead of starting on the questions. )
I'm currently 7 months pregnant with our first baby, and we're set to move a month after he's born. It's been a time full of preparation, but also a lot of uncertainty that my husband and I can't control! "Prepping and Pondering" is what I'd call this chapter. We can only have so much control over our lives!
I will be 60 years old next month. I am grateful to everyone who has supported me up until now. I have been suffering from mental disorders for many years, but I consider myself very fortunate. To be honest, recent news makes me feel depressed and increasingly anxious. A Japanese actor I greatly admire once said, when he turned 60, that there was nothing he was afraid of at this age. From now on, I want to live like him, never forgetting to smile even in difficult times, maintaining hope, and being grateful for the small joys of everyday life.
I will be 45 next month, I feel free from depression after almost a whole life struggling with that! I have some extra classes (I am a teacher), maturity made me feel extremelly confortable about my sexuality (I'm proudly gay) and I feel life as a perfect place I want to explore even more!!!
I am getting ready for a major surgery and while I’m confident that I’ll be fine I can’t say that I’m not scared at all. Putting life on hold for surgery and recovery also makes me worried. Postcrossing will help me get through this period in life.
My next chapter? Let me think.
The rollercoaster called life?
My son has a beautiful family, bit both sons are autistic.
That is very difficult for him and his wife.
My son recently found out, he is autistic too....
My daughter has PTSD. (Post Traumatic Stress Diseas)
My great love has heart problems.
And I am almost 67. Time to retire.
"Just looking for some sparkles of hope."
I think that is my new chapter! :)
A new time, new chances, new adventures,
Live here I come, lets make the best of it!
Happy postcrossing everyone.
Lets sent a lot of love and peace to the world, by sending beautiful postcards that make other people smile. :)
Pass on the smile.
I think it's more of a "Part" of my life, than a chapter because I feel this period will span a lengthier timeframe, but I've been routinely referring to this part as "The Synchronicity Sea". Just sailing these wondrous tides!
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