Why I Write: Saving the Stories that Matter

I never really set out to become an author.

I simply had stories I didn’t want to lose.

Some were memories from my own childhood—growing up in Idaho, playing outdoors, getting into mischief, working alongside my family, and experiencing the kind of ordinary days that didn’t seem important at the time.

But as the years passed, I began to understand just how precious those ordinary days were.

I wanted to remember my mother’s kitchen, my father’s hard-working hands, the people who came before me, the laughter of my children when they were little, and the experiences that shaped the person I became.

So I began to write.

One story became another, and before long I discovered something I hadn’t expected: writing wasn’t only a way to preserve the past. It was a way to understand it.

Some of my books are funny. Some are tender. Some are written for children, while others are family histories or stories about the more difficult parts of loving one another.

They may seem very different, but they all come from the same place—my heart.

I believe our stories matter.

I believe the funny things children do are worth remembering. I believe the recipes passed from one generation to another carry more than ingredients. I believe old photographs deserve names and stories. And I believe even the painful chapters of our lives can hold something worth sharing.

Most of all, I want my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren—and perhaps people I will never meet—to be able to open one of my books someday and find a little piece of life inside it.

That is why I write.

Not because my life has been extraordinary, but because I’ve learned that an ordinary life is filled with extraordinary moments when we take the time to remember them.

And I still have stories to tell.

— Roma Sierk