The Gift of the Story

No, this isn’t personally about “MY” Anita’s story, but about the gift of a story. I’m just finishing up my Digital Storytelling course at ESC, and honestly, I have had too much fun, and wish it wasn’t over. I found myself thinking, I would have liked to do more work, I love this idea or that idea. To make a comparison, it was like the creative and technology equivalence of being a little kid in a candy store. The group in the class was really great work with and share ideas with. Minus a Twitter project, the projects themselves were individual, but the sharing on the discussion boards was as much of a learning process as if I were sitting in a lecture hall and probably moreso. Because of the nature of the course, Digital Storytelling, I don’t think it would have worked as successfully if it was in a classroom setting.

Over the course, of the course, I started thinking of how I could apply the ideas and technologies that I’ve learned into projects both professionally and personally. Most of us have at our fingertips technology that can capture moments and record them, share them, save them. Many, many, many years ago, we were all sitting around my parents dining room table and playing with “the” technology, a taperecorder. My Uncle Frank and my dad were kidding around and made a short recording that we all laughed about. Honestly, I didn’t think anything of it, at the time. Years, later, my uncle passed away. Somehow, my initial thoughts in that day were, I want that tape, I needed to hear his voice again, but I could no longer find the tape.

Today I spent time talking with a friend of mine, who’s grandfather has been quite sick. She told me how she spent time with him last night and he shared some stories of her dad when he was a young boy that they never heard before. I told her to grab her video camera, and let him talk. Let him share the stories of their family, and his life. This man, has lead an AMAZING life. He has been a civic leader, a community leader, and a devoted life-long public servant. The stories that he can share with his family about his family, and politics, can take up gigabytes and gigabytes of text alone.

Not that I didn’t already know the importance of stories, but I've learned to appreciate them more. I grew up in a close-knit family, in old-fashioned way, and shared stories around the dinner table. This course has truly opened so many doors to ideas – the most important though is, capture your stories now ~ they are gift. This has been the beginning of a very fun journey!