Storytelling as Growth

I've found one of the biggest challenges is to remember that the woman I am today has just as many stories to share and just as much potential as I did on the days like this one, in Thailand.

I've known that stories are important to people for a while. However, over the last couple years I've seen how they can build unexpected connections, facilitate learning, and best of all, can help us see people and events in relation to their context or time. Because I know stories are so important, I have spent the last few years practicing how to ask better questions that invite others to share stories from their lives. The stories shared with me have been beautiful, complex, heavy, and hilarious.

Being an inviter of stories has enriched my life, but I've realized I may have over corrected. I was out to coffee with a childhood friend once. We were catching up and I was asking him questions about college, faith, family, and life. At one point the conversation lulled and said, "You ask great questions, but I don't know anything about your life. What is going on for you?" And I realized that not only had I not talked about myself once during the conversation, I didnt know what I would have talked about if I did. That didn't mean my life was empty. In fact, during that season of life I was navigating student leadership, questions of race and justice, working to be a better long distance member of my family, learning mind blowing things about communications and the world around me. Yet, I didn't even know how to put it into words.

That conversation has stuck with me. This weekend, I got to see a group of family friends, including this guy and his family. As we all sat around and caught up, his mom mentioned all of the opportunities I have had to travel in the last three years. She asked me what made those experiences (especially the service and learning trips I've taken to Mexico, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Chicago, Thailand, and Malaysia) different from a vacation. In many ways, it would be easier to just call those trips vacations, but without some clarification it would be easy to erase importance of the relationships I've made and the stories I've been entrusted with as I've traveled. I was reminded of the conversation a few years ago with her son.

I believe that God can even use moments on these vacations for bigger things. I also believe that the stories we carry aren't simply meant to impact our lives, but the lives of those we come into contact with.

I want to practice sharing stories instead of keeping them to myself. I want to invite others to treasure my stories just as I seek to treasure theirs'. Along the way, I want to share not only the stories of my experiences, but also begin to share the things I've been learning.