Storytelling

We all tell stories. Perhaps the most important one we tell is the story of our life, to ourselves. Sometimes, the story we tell about ourselves gets distorted by what happens to us. We take on our darker chapters as if they are part of who we are, and then we become them, having forgotten our true nature.

 

Having written and kept journals my entire life, I can now finally see how monochromatic I had let my story become (it shows both in the stories in in my first book, as well as my older drawings from that time). The last couple of years I've been writing a different genre for myself, one filled with more color and light, one that has ultimately led me to coming back home to myself. 

 

Below is my first book, written between 2011 and 2014 mostly, for my English class in high school, and displaying my drawings from those years. It was published by Heyday Books in 2021, and you can get it here or here.

 

You can compare it to the story I've told about myself here, on the My Story page.

Although it deals with "heavier" semi-fictional stuff (it was my way of making sense of what was happening in my life), such as unrequited love, mental illness, flirtatious dances with ending one's own life, it does bring forth conversations with strangers of immense compassion and grace, and ways in which a sad teenager dreamed of making this world a better place. 

 

"I rise from my worst disasters, I turn, I change." (Virgina Woolf, The Waves)

 

I have my sister to thank for putting together some of my writings from high school as a birthday present years ago, and thus helping me eventually publish this book, so thank you, sis!

 

So, I like telling stories. I think stories, legends, myths, or any other way to channel our inner workings to the outside using words hold enormous power in healing us all and walking together to a better place.

 

Something I've recently discovered, but already love, is storytelling with data. Having gained some experience as a data analyst with my previous employer, it was there where I started telling stories using data, which in turn made me fall in love with stories told both using words and visuals (be it data charts or illustrations). Here is the Nobel Prize story I told there, and below you can see a few screenshots from my work.

All stories deserve to be told and heard. My plan is to start writing stories again, and get to put more work out there that might one day be of use to someone. And, why not, perhaps one day I might help others with their own storytelling, one way or another.

 

“Storytelling is our obligation to the next generation. If all we are doing is marketing, we are doing a disservice, and not only to our profession, but to our children, and their children. Give something of meaning to your audience by inspiring, engaging, and educating them with story. Stop marketing. Start storytelling.”

(Laura Holloway, Founder & Chief of The Storyteller Agency)