Storytelling and story creation have always been interesting and powerful to me. It is a way to share a story that could inspire, connect and influence others and it led me to realize what career I would like to pursue in the future.
My love for storytelling sparked during high school. I saw the beauty of storytelling and how it impacted people around me. During my junior and senior years at Springfield high school, I took classes in video production and documentary/film. Through those years, I learned about the different techniques of story creation and how to produce an emotional and heart-grabbing piece. I felt passionate about informing people about different topics or stories that I felt needed to be heard.
Some of the stories I created in those classes involved important global issues. I know for me, it is more appealing to watch a video than to read a long lengthy page. When watching a visual story, you can instantly feel the emotion and relate to people’s experiences. Storytelling is highly beneficial to others because it is an opportunity to listen to others’ struggles and apply their life lessons to our own.
Continuing my enthusiasm for story creation and storytelling, there are courses that I have taken/am taking at Cabrini that are expanding my knowledge on how to become a better storyteller. Two classes that I have enjoyed so far are my video production class and my multimedia story creation class. In video production, we got to share a sentimental piece. The story I produced was about my dad’s tragic injury that ultimately ended his police career. This piece was on the heavier emotional side and you could tell people felt moved after watching it. I felt proud after piecing together this story because I got to show my dad’s pain and hurt, while also giving others the chance to possibly relate to or know someone who went through a similar experience.
A second story that I produced was in my multimedia story creation class. In this story, I had the chance to interview a high school cheerleader and how she was inspired to become a cheerleader and the pressures and stress that weigh on her. This was a narrative that I believe excited my audience because you got to see an inside look at what it’s like to be a cheerleader and how serious cheer can be, which many may not have known.
Christine Hennebury, writer for CBC, said, “The act of storytelling, a person sharing a story with a listener, is a very basic human connection and it reminds us of how we are part of something enduring, something much bigger than ourselves.” Storytelling is something that we all do daily, whether we realize it or not. For example, you come home from a long tiring day and sit down with a friend and debrief what happened to you during the day usually including the good and the bad.
But how will I take story creation and storytelling with me in the future? A career that I would like to seek in the future is becoming a broadcast journalist. So you are probably wondering how I will tie story creation into this. Well, broadcast journalists’ jobs are to conduct interviews and write up reports to broadcast news and stories to the world. The relation between story creation and broadcast journalism is complementary in the way that it is their job to share important stories, incidents and events publicly. Many of the stories shared are emotional and grab the viewer’s attention.
Storytelling and story creation is something that I will always take appreciation to and I hope to continue to grow and expand my knowledge as well as create more stories for people to view in the future.
