“Together: draw the timeline of us.”

A set-piece. One table, two pens, the same evening, one joint artefact. These are the pages people photograph.

Why this question

One line across the whole spread. Mark the meetings, the moves, the eras, the disasters and the golden patches — and argue properly about the dates.

And once you’ve both answered

Then each of you mark, in your own ink, the hinge: the moment after which this friendship was inevitable.

Answering it honestly

One table, two pens, the same evening. This one doesn't work by correspondence.
Argue about the details out loud before anything gets written down. The arguing is part of the artefact.
Finish in the sitting. A half-built set-piece has a way of staying half-built.

And the house rule, whatever the mode: leave a blank rather than write a lie. A blank can be filled later; a lie sits in the archive forever, and you both have to live with the paperwork.

More from Turning Points & Private History

“What grief have we carried together?”

“What's something I did that made you prouder than you ever said at the time?”

“What is a turning point in your life that I was there for, but you have never properly told me how it felt at the time?”