Story of My Life

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and emotional abuse.

Personal reinvention is at the heart of Story of My Life, with Hazel Hart’s journey charting the messy and nonlinear but ultimately triumphant process of reclaiming and redefining herself. From the opening chapters, Hazel acknowledges the extent of her personal collapse, admitting, “Old Hazel never would have let it get this bad. There were a lot of things the old me would have done differently. But she was dead and buried” (10). This pronouncement marks the death of her former self and simultaneously clears the path for the self-reinvention she undertakes in Story Lake.

To achieve this reinvention, Hazel must shift from being a passive observer to being an active participant in her own life. As she notes, “I’d never been involved before. My entire life I’d taken on the role of observer” (45). Her decision to move, to purchase a home sight unseen, and to invest in a community that initially barely tolerates her reflects how committed she is to this reinvention, even if it’s subconscious. Hazel’s internal dialogue consistently tracks her transformation from victim to agent: “I was officially in Hazel Adventure Mode,” she proclaims, embracing the thrill of uncertainty and “taking risks…like driving and buying houses online” (53).