Sometimes, Life Rhymes a Bit

As I shared recently, I’ve started doing improv with a local group. (It’s so much fun!)

This week, we played an improv game where a person tells a real life story…

Then the group initiates three scenes, loosely inspired by that story…

The first person then tells another real life story, loosely inspired by those scenes…

Then three more scenes….

Then one final, real life story…

Then three more scenes.

That’s the cycle. When we played the game, I got to be the storyteller. I told three, true stories — three funny moments that have happened over the years with others. Some of these stories are the kinds that invite people to respond, “You couldn’t make that up!” I loved delivering these stories in the moment.

I’ve played a similar role in the group multiple times now, telling stories just like this. This time, after the entire improv night was over, one of the participants said to me:

“How do you have so many stories? How did all these things happen to you?”

In response to these questions, I just beamed. This was a wonderful surprise because these are the exact questions people used to ask my very formative, surrogate father David. “How do you have so many stories? How did all these things happen to you?”

Here I was, hearing the exact same questions asked of me.

Sometimes, life rhymes a bit. And I just reveled in that connection.

—Renee Roederer