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Indiana

Hoosier stories deserve to be told by the Hoosier who lived them

Indiana calls itself the Crossroads of America, and people have arrived here from every direction. The life you have built in this state, and the way you see things now, are worth keeping for the people who matter to you.

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How would you explain what it means to be a Hoosier to someone who has never been here?

Steady, practical work built much of Indiana, and steady, practical work can keep your stories too. A few minutes with one question a day is all ToldForward asks. The habits you picked up, the people who taught you and the choices you would make differently all get set down in your own words, saved privately for the generations after you.

Only you can see your answers while you live.

Kept the way you would want

  • In your own voice, on the page

    Your phrasing, your humour, your way of putting things, kept word for word.

  • Dated as you go

    Every answer carries its date, so the way your thinking changes is part of the story.

  • Handed on with care

    The people you choose receive it after at least 6 months, never sooner.

  • Text only, on purpose

    No recordings and no images of you are ever made or kept.

From first answer to the people you love

It takes a few minutes a day, at any age.

  1. Begin with one answer

    You do not need a plan. Start with today's question and see where it leads.

  2. Watch it become a record

    Over months and years, your answers become a picture of how you think.

  3. Leave it in good hands

    With Archive Membership, the people you name can also ask a guide about your words.

Indiana

Your Indiana, in your own words

Sand dunes in the Midwest

Along about 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, Indiana Dunes National Park has trails that cross shifting dunes, woodlands, prairies and wetlands, shaped by the lake for thousands of years. People who live up north know the feeling of hot sand underfoot and cold water in June. You may have spent childhood summers there, though your Indiana could just as easily be all fields and county roads. Wherever your corner of the state is, describe it the way you see it, so the people after you can stand there too.

On the banks of the Wabash

The Wabash is Indiana's official state river, and the state song, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away," still carries a kind of homesickness in it. Indiana goes by the Hoosier State, and one of the first printed uses of the word came in a poem called "The Hoosier's Nest." Being a Hoosier means something a little different to everyone. What does it mean to you? How would you explain it to someone who has never set foot here?

Built on limestone and hard work

Indiana even has an official state stone, Salem Limestone. It fits a state where so much has been built by steady, practical work: on farms, in factories, in classrooms, kitchens and small shops on the square. Your own working life, paid or unpaid, holds lessons that nobody else learned in quite the same way. The habits you picked up, the people who taught you and the choices you would make differently are exactly the kinds of things the generations after you will be curious to hear about.

The guide

It quotes you. It never pretends to be you.

With Archive Membership, the people you name can ask a guide about your life. It answers only with your own words, quoted and dated, and says plainly when your record holds no answer.

  • Your words, exactly

    Quotes come straight from your record, never rewritten by AI.

  • Clearly an AI

    The guide always says it is an AI, and speaks about you, not as you.

  • Honest when unsure

    When nothing you wrote answers a question, it says so.

Indiana

If you live in Indiana

How we look after your information
  • Your record is private while you live: nothing in it is public or searchable.
  • You choose the people who will one day receive it, and you can change them at any time.
  • The Historical Deposit is not offered in Indiana yet, while we confirm how Indiana's rules apply to it. Everything else is the same.

Take the first question at your own pace

Every day ToldForward offers one friendly question about your life and your views, and you can answer in writing or with your device's dictation. Your record is private for as long as you live, and only the people you name will one day receive it.

Start your free trialSee the memberships

Keeping your story in Indianapolis · Every state

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