I was able to gather a collection of smaller stories instead of a larger story I could write a paragraph about (it was a busy break, my sister in law had a baby). For examples: 

My sister told me about a time when she went rock climbing with one of her friends and nearly fell off the side of a mountain. She was way in over her head and her friend was obviously more qualified than her.

My brother told my family about some of his experiences at Virginia Tech when he roomed with his high school friend freshman year, and then his journey through med school in Connecticut.

And my dad also shared with my family how he managed to cause upwards of thousands of dollars in damages to a boat when it detached from a while on the freeway in Fancy Gap.

What could possibly make these all ‘stories’ is how they communicate so much detail through familiarity; my sister told her story when we, along with her husband, were rock climbing ourselves. My brother knew that we had all been to college and experienced some sort of hard academic work of the sort. And my dad used the feeling of dread from making a big mistake to really communicate what he felt to us.