The Power of Storytelling [My Story]
There's a reason storytelling is one of the oldest forms of communication in the world. It's because it's incredibly powerful. Stories can entertain, educate, and engage us like no other form of communication can. And as writers, we have the ability to use stories to change people's lives. So let's use that power to its fullest potential and tell stories that matter!
Everyone loves a good story... especially me. My love of stories began when I was a child. Every night at bedtime, my little brothers and I would climb into my mom's bed and she would read aloud from the first Harry Potter book. I vividly remember the way I felt when she opened to the first page and we learned about an old man with a magic lighter and a half-giant who rode a flying motorcycle.
As I grew older, I fell in love with reading. I would lay on the floor in my bedroom for hours, listening to the Harry Potter books on tape. In the summers, my mom would take me to the library once a week and I would stagger to the front desk with a stack of books piled from my hands all the way to my chin. (Have you ever seen Cinderella? You know how Gus-Gus carried all those corn kernels in his arms? That's what I looked like.) I would read all the books in a week, return them, and repeat the same cycle.
But my love of story didn't stop with books. In my teenage years, I devoured everything story related. I watched all kinds of TV shows and movies, everything from anime to rom-com to action and adventure. I started writing my own stories and later creating my own little cartoon TV shows using The Sims to film.
When I say that story has changed my life, I mean it. As an adult, I started a career in customer service, where I fell in love with listening to other people's stories in the waiting room (I worked at a dentist's office). My love for storytelling eventually led me to a job as a hybrid customer service manager and copywriter. There, I learned how to use story to market products. I learned how the power of story can encourage people to buy a product that could change their lives.
And now here I am, in my current career as an author and freelance line editor, polishing other writers' stories and sharing my own stories with the world. And hopefully someday, my stories will support my family too.
Stories connect us all. They inspire us, make us laugh, and move us to tears. They help us understand the world around us and the people in it. And they can incite change – both big and small. We’ve seen the power of storytelling throughout history, and I believe that it is one of the most powerful ways to communicate. If you agree, I challenge you to start sharing your story with others. You never know where it might lead you!