Story in a Single Sentence (Part 1)

"Well, that's my life story." Why is it that sometimes we describe our lives like a story, and other times, we don't? 

"What is 'story?' Come on, of course I should know!" says my past self. "I've been making stories for my whole life, and I am even working on my novel (series)! I definitely know what story is." 

Well, that's what I thought as I wrote my stories. I poured my heart into them. I wrote them because I wanted them to inspire people to change their hearts and turn around their lives. But all this time, I never actually tried thinking about what really is a story in the first place. I mean, if I can watch TV stories without thinking about what story is, then I can also write stories without that too, right? So I sort of just wrote stories closer to this vague idea I had of what story truly is in my mind, that I couldn't exactly articulate. It never occured to me to try to define what story actually was. That is, until I watched Michael Jamin's webinar. 

You see, Michael Jamin is a renowned screenwriter. In his webinar, he said that I need to be able to define a story in a single sentence in order to truly write one. "Otherwise you'll only write one if you get lucky," he said.

Wait... if you only get lucky? What does that mean? 

"Can I define a story in a single sentence..." I thought. 

But wait... isn't that just something we sort of know? I mean, I know how to eat. I was never trained to do that, was I? 

But I have to admit, I wanted to prove myself as a writer and thinker. This was a new challenge for me. So, I took it upon myself to come up with a single-sentence definition for story...