This exercise encourages you both to consider your current self-concepts and to conceive of your future self-concepts.

Your task is to write an obituary for yourself. Write your obituary as though you have died in the future, not as though you have just passed away. This activity will require you to think about how you see yourself and your life in the future.

Most obituaries contain the following elements: 1) name and age of the deceased; 2) where the person grew up and where he or she was living at the time of death; 3) the person’s education and occupation(s); 4) the person’s greatest achievements in life; 5) what people will remember the most fondly about the person; and, 6) family members (spouse, children, parents, siblings) who have survived the person.

This is not meant to be a fantasy exercise. In other words, you shouldn’t construct fantasy versions of your future lives (e.g., Bob died a multi-millionaire, Tina died the most famous singer in the world ). Rather, you should project who you actually expect to be and what you actually see yourselves doing in life. This will include where you see yourselves living, whether you see yourselves as having a spouse and/or children, and what you expect people will remember about you when you are gone.

There are a dozen ways for a teacher to approach Chapter 3, but I find that you will get the most out of the chapter concepts if you can relate them to yourself.

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