Lately I’ve been asking myself, “What is my life communicating?” After all, we are each writing our own life story day by day.

Guess what? Storytelling can be hard.

When I was in high school, our 10th-grade English teacher, Ms. Albritton, taught us about something called “The Tilley Plot Scheme.” This is the front of Professor Tilley’s book and it tells you everything you need to know:

A great story has a lot of ups and downs in it.

My year has been like that. I bet yours has, too. Sometimes life feels easy (mountaintop!), but too soon something comes along and pulls me into a valley.

As much as I love those mountaintop experiences, I know they are only possible because of the valleys.

If we avoid the valleys, we deprive ourselves of the mountaintops, too.

Some days, grief overwhelms me. Some days, my own mistakes get to me. And some days, my negative soundtrack just won’t stop. Those are valley days.

If you’re like me, you might remember pretending to be a “Valley Girl” in the 1980’s. Back then it was fun, but in 2014 that’s like totally o-u-t. If someone calls you a Valley Girl, that’s an insult my friend. (Click here to read the Urban Dictionary definition.)

The next time you find yourself in a valley, remember Tilley says it’s temporary (like the 1980’s). Don’t give up. The momentum of life will push you out of the valley to a higher place. And it will be like totally gnarly when you get there.

Even better, we can do more than endure the valleys, we can appreciate them. In the Tilley Plot Scheme, the valleys and mountaintops work together to tell a great story. I think that’s true in life, too. The rough seasons lead to less-rough seasons and together they make a beautiful life.

What do you think? Are you in a valley today or up on the mountaintop? Tell me about it in an e-mail or on Twitter or Facebook.