About 800 words

One life. One story. 800 words at a time.

800 Words is a collection of true stories from my life, told one scene at a time.

Some are serious. Some are funny. Some are awkward, painful, nostalgic, or completely ordinary. Together, they form one continuing story about work, family, fear, change, starting over, taking risks, and figuring out what matters when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Every scene is exactly 800 words.

That rule started as part of the idea, but it quickly became part of the identity of the site. Eight hundred words is long enough to tell a real story, but short enough to stay focused on one moment, one memory, or one piece of life.

The stories are organized into Chapters, which represent the larger seasons of my life. The individual posts are Scenes within those chapters.

The first chapter, From Phoenix to Paradise, begins in Phoenix and follows a period when almost everything in my life started changing. From there, the story continues forward.

This isn’t meant to be a motivational site, a self-help site, or a polished version of a perfect life. It’s simply one life told as honestly as I can tell it.

There will be good days and bad ones. Family memories. Travel. Starting over. Mistakes. Wins. Quiet moments. Ridiculous moments. And probably a few stories I never expected to tell publicly.

The goal isn’t to make every scene profound.

The goal is to make every scene true.

If something in one of these stories reminds you of your own family, your own mistakes, your own fears, or a moment you thought you’d forgotten, then 800 Words is doing exactly what I hoped it would do.

One life. One story. 800 words at a time.