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Brett and Kate McKay<br />

• What will people miss most about you? The creative homemade gifts<br />

you gave every Christmas? What a good listener you were? The handwritten<br />

letters you sent to friends? The way you could turn every mishap<br />

into something to laugh about?<br />

Step 2: Turn your outline into a eulogy.<br />

Now you’re going to take all of the ideas you just jotted down and coalesce<br />

them into a finished project. Here’s an easy format to follow:<br />

1. Birth and childhood. Keep this section pretty brief.<br />

2. College and career. Where you went to school, what you majored in,<br />

what jobs you had. Include any awards you won or accomplishments<br />

you made.<br />

3. Family and relationships.<br />

4. Your hobbies and interests.<br />

5. The qualities and characteristics that set you apart and made<br />

you memorable.<br />

6. What people will miss about you.<br />

Your eulogy doesn’t have to be an endless tome. Just hit the high points of<br />

your life, the really important stuff. Here’s a sample eulogy that I made up:<br />

“Carl Johnson was a true New Yorker. He was born in the city in 1978 and<br />

he never truly left. Although he traveled the world extensively, and lived<br />

at times in other places, he always came home to the Big Apple. He said<br />

the city was truly in his blood, and there was never any doubt about where<br />

he would retire. Carl grew up in the Bronx and showed his propensity for<br />

adventure early on when he snuck out of the house and rode the subway all<br />

over the city at the tender age of 8. Carl’s parents were terrified; Carl was<br />

delighted.<br />

Carl went to school at NYU and studied journalism. He wanted to be another<br />

Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. He worked for several smaller papers,<br />

always burning the midnight oil, always hot on the trail of the next big story.<br />

He landed his dream job when he was hired by the New York Times to<br />

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