I am 99% positive that most of the users on the BBS have Facebook accounts. I am also certain that these users have had their accounts for a significant period of time (months to years).

I present a little thought experiment. What I want you to do is use Facebook's new Timeline feature to write a memoir. You will start at your very first post and work your way from the past to the present, revealing how you have changed and how you have grown. I encourage you to have others do this as well.

This is my Facebook Memoir, for example. Use this as a reference when making your own memoir.

How is this 'mission' supposed to help anyone?

I'm bringing this back to the top, because I want you guys to give this a chance. It isn't often that we can look back and see how far we've come so clearly.

I want to draw a parallel. Some of you, back in elementary school, probably did a "Letter to your future self." Maybe you did it and even forgot you had done so. Maybe you gave it to your parents to hold onto until the time was right. And perhaps some of you have reclaimed that letter, and read it.

How do who you are now and who you were then differ? Maybe you've completed every goal you set out for yourself, or maybe your goals changed entirely. Maybe you find yourself happier now than then, or maybe you wish you could go back to those days.

Finally, what do you do with this analysis? Do you go back and accomplish the goals you never achieved? Do you make a promise to yourself to live for that past self? It's really up to you.

It's strange, because when I did this project, I really got to look back at the steps I took to come out as transgender. I remembered the pain, the insecurity, and all of the drama between me, my family, my friends and my peers. And then I see how, at one point, it all ended. I finally took the plunge, came out, and started to really be myself.

I realized that I wouldn't have been able to take that plunge without certain people by my side. And I decided to go back and thank them one more time, and my respect for them was renewed again. I also gained a little respect for myself, since I realized quite a few things I didn't see back then.

Lastly, I was able to see how everything eventually just fell into place, and led to who I am today. Overall, it was an amazing experiment, and that's why I'm asking others to simply try it. Sit down, leaf through your past, and see how far you've come. That's all I ask.

I have started using the Timeline after reading this. I have for years tried to start writing a memoir of my life, I think the longest streak I've had is like 4 days of writing and then quitting. While I do eventually want to actually write a real pen and paper (or Microsoft Word) memoir in case my life story is ever sought for historical purposes, I think the Timeline feature could help with that too. 100 years or more from now mankind will probably be able to use our online records today as historical records, just like we've gone from cave paintings to cuneiform tablets to papyrus to scrolls to contemporary journals and letters. Think of it like a digital time capsule.

>>5 Did you know that the Library of Congress archives our most popular Twitter feeds, so that 100 years from now the citizens of that time can look back and see what our society was like now?

I actually work in homeland security and counterterrorism in the US, an a lot of the intel we "spies" get is literally a lot of twitter feeds, Facebook posts and other social media postings, so it wouldn't surprise me that they keep track of them lol. I think it will be interesting for future generations to see what it was like for us by reading our Internet postings, just like now we read people's memoirs from a long time ago.

Also just for clarification on the counterterrorism thing in my section we just read posts that are public and analyze it for clues as to possible plans and general perspectives from the public, so I don't actually hacki into and read people's private stuff lol. We have other guys that do that ;)

>>8 I'm not worried. I plan to take over the world with love.