TASK DEFINITION: Read the given story and classify it as 'imagined', 'recalled', or 'retold'. If a story is imagined, the person who wrote the story is making it up, pretending they experienced it. If a story is recalled, the person who wrote the story really experienced it and is recalling it from memory. If a story is retold, it is a real memory like the 'recalled' stories, but written down much later after previously writing a 'recalled' story about the same events. So, recalled stories and retold stories will be fairly similar, in that they both were real experiences for the writer. Imagined stories have a more linear flow and contain more commonsense knowledge, whereas recalled stories are less connected and contain more specific concrete events. Additionally, higher levels of self reference are found in imagined stories. Between recalled and retold stories, retold stories flow significantly more linearly than recalled stories, and retold stories are significantly higher in scores for cognitive processes and positive tone.
PROBLEM: This past 4th of July was the first of my grand daughters life. We had her come over to our house where it is legal to shoot off fireworks and basically celebrate however you decide to do that. We started off the day by cooking up some food and having a nice cookout on this day. We had some burgers and some typical 4th of July foods. We spent the day together as a family really just having a nice time together talking and catching up. Then it started to get darker outside and we began to shoot off some fireworks. All of our neighbors also take part in this as there really is a fireworks show right above our house. We took her outside and at first she acted a bit scared because of all the noise. After a little bit though she relaxed and began to enjoy seeing all of the lights in the sky and hearing the noise. She was really having a great time seeing all of these things for the very first time and it reminded me how much something like this can mean. It took me back and made me enjoy the 4th more than I have in a long time. I really enjoyed watching how she reacted to each huge firework that exploded in the sky above her head. She was throwing her hands in the air and screaming in joy about how much fun she was having with all of this. We really had a great time on this 4th showing this little girl what this holiday was all about. She had a great experience with the entire thing and really enjoyed her first one. She couldn't stop smiling as she was having the time of her life during this event.

SOLUTION: retold

PROBLEM: Walking through the small apartment, Celia had a huge smile, trying to hide a bit or nervousness, to show me her or now our apartment. We had spent some time together, but not much as we lived so far away and I decided to move in with her never having even been to her place. Around each corner she pointed out a room with little suggestions for what we would do in them. She had an adorable way of showing the room where she would have both hands in the back pockets of her jeans or one and one arm embracing me, while she lifted up on her toes just a bit as she ended her sentences. There was such joy in the air to finally be coming together and thinking of the possibilities that this flat would bring. This was not only me moving in with my partner, but this is the first partner I fully moved in with. All my other relationships had stages where we would spend 12 or 14 days together or spend the night 5-10x in a row at the same place, but I never got to the stage where we were moved in and officially living together. Not only was I making a big jump in my relationship, I was making a big jump in where I lived. I moved away from my friends and family to live with Celia. I did not know anyone in the city or region she lived in. She is just so wonderful that I had to make this big change and take a chance on the love between us. Later on that day, she would chop up a salad for us to have for dinner. That was a big deal as her old roommate told me that was a surprise that she "cooked" so much for me. It was a wonderful little meal and a sign of her trying to help me ease into the situation. Washing the dishes it really was settling in that I was in a new place that was beginning to feel like a home. After that we had our first Netflix and chill. We found a BBC series that we became completely addicted to. There while she was leaning up against to me the whole film as we found our little comfort spot on her small couch. There were no nerves then, except not to spill the wine. With her cat climbing over us, I was realizing that this was a place I would be for along time. While her head rested on my chest and she started to fade into sleep, I had found that comfort zone in the apartment very quickly.

SOLUTION: retold

PROBLEM: A couple of months ago it was my niece's birthday. She was turning four and had a small get together of family and friends at her parent's place. The party started out with her doing a dance. Then we went outside to eat some pizza and play. After the pizza, she wanted to play with some barbies. I decided to play with her so we went upstairs to her room to get the barbies. It took us a few minutes to decided how many to get. Her little brother also joined us. All together we probably had eight or nine barbies and a large bus for the barbies. Unfortunately, by the time we had retrieved all the barbies it was time for cake and for a six year old, cake trumps. We sang her happy birthday and lit the cake. Then she proceeded to try and blow out the candles for the next three to four minutes to no avail. It turns out her parent's had put trick candles on the cake and we all had a good laugh about it. After the cake we put some music on and danced a bit more. Finally everybody started to say their goodbyes and we all left the birthday with a few new toys and a belly full of cake.

SOLUTION:
retold