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50 questions to ask your family

Ask one at dinner, on a drive, or on the phone. Start with the easy ones — the best answers often come from a small question. Let them wander; the detours are usually the story.

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Growing up

  1. 1.What is your very first memory?
  2. 2.What do you remember about the home you grew up in?
  3. 3.What did a typical day look like in your house growing up?
  4. 4.What did you love doing as a kid?
  5. 5.Who was your first friend, and what did you do together?
  6. 6.What would get you in trouble as a kid?
  7. 7.What scared you the most when you were young?
  8. 8.What smells, sounds, or tastes bring you right back to childhood?
  9. 9.What is the funniest thing that happened to you as a kid?
  10. 10.What do you wish people understood about your childhood?

Family

  1. 11.What do you remember most about the person who raised you?
  2. 12.What habits or sayings from your family do you still carry with you?
  3. 13.What traditions did your family have that you loved?
  4. 14.What lessons did someone in your family teach you without ever saying a word?
  5. 15.Who in your family do you think shaped you the most, and how?
  6. 16.What do you appreciate about your family now that you didn't when you were younger?
  7. 17.What do you wish you had asked a family member while you still could?

Finding yourself

  1. 18.What dreams did you have when you were young that nobody knew about?
  2. 19.What moment made you feel like you were finally growing up?
  3. 20.What is your strongest memory from school?
  4. 21.What song or movie takes you right back to being a teenager?
  5. 22.What did you believe about the world when you were young that turned out to be different?
  6. 23.What experience as a young person changed the direction of your life?

Love

  1. 24.What do you remember about falling in love for the first time?
  2. 25.What is the best advice anyone ever gave you about relationships?
  3. 26.What small moment with someone you love do you think about often?
  4. 27.Who has been the most unexpected friendship in your life?

Work

  1. 28.What was your first job, and what did it teach you?
  2. 29.What work have you done that made you feel the most proud?
  3. 30.What did you want to be when you grew up, and how did that change?
  4. 31.What has been the hardest decision you've made in your career or life path?

Raising a family

  1. 32.What surprised you most about becoming a parent?
  2. 33.What moment with your children has meant the most to you?
  3. 34.What do you hope your children learned from watching you?
  4. 35.What is something your kids did that made you laugh until you cried?

Hard times

  1. 36.What has been the hardest season of your life, and how did you get through it?
  2. 37.What loss or struggle shaped who you are today?
  3. 38.When did you feel the strongest, even if no one else noticed?
  4. 39.What helped you keep going during a time when things felt impossible?

Joy

  1. 40.What is the best meal you have ever had, and who were you with?
  2. 41.What is the most adventurous thing you have ever done?
  3. 42.What always makes you laugh, no matter what?
  4. 43.What is a place you have visited that you will never forget?
  5. 44.What is a talent or hobby most people don't know you have?

Looking back

  1. 45.What do you know now that you wish you had known at twenty?
  2. 46.What do you feel most grateful for when you look back on your life?
  3. 47.What do you think people misunderstand about you?
  4. 48.What moments in your life do you hope are never forgotten?
  5. 49.What would you want future generations in your family to know about you?
  6. 50.If you could leave one message behind for the people you love, what would it be?

When you hear a story you don't want to lose, save it with Memory Murals.

Add a photo, type the story or record their voice, and keep it somewhere private your family can come back to. Free to start at memorymurals.com.

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