If life had a catch phrase it might read: “Ready or not…here I come.”

Life comes at us hard, and fast, and we inevitably lose some things during the chaos of the daily grind. Whether it’s keys, a job, youth or a loved one, we all experience loss along the way.

While satirically minded SMITH writers choose to cope by poking fun at their individual losses, the more blunt among us prefer to lay their loss out in a more take-it-or-leave-it kind of way.

For a taste of both approaches, here are some of your fellow memoirists telling their tales of loss in six words. Click on each author’s name for more of his or her memoirs. You can can also search the Six-Word Memoir site for any word and see what pops up.

Studied hard. Laptop crashed. Lost scholarship. — SilverInkblot

I lost him while finding me. — notyouraveragegrandma

Twenty. Completely lost. Somehow, it’s okay. — rb1123

Lost daughter’s bat-mitzvah money in stock-market. — sisterpoet

Found lost weight in the fridge. — MMK

Learned “I’m lost” in six different languages. — BanjoDan

Accidentally hit “Reply All”, lost job. — Valhallarie